Celebrities have paid tribute to Talia Joy Castellano, the 13-year-old YouTube star, who passed away on Tuesday after six years battling cancer.
Stars took to Twitter to honour the inspirational teen, who created her own YouTube channel which included make-up tutorials and personal video blogs about her cancer treatments, and which accumulated more than 750,000 subscribers.
Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, 55, led the tributes following the teen's death. "This year I met a very special girl, and today we lost her. Sending my heart to Talia's family. I'm so sad," she tweeted early on Tuesday morning.Later in the day, Ellen posted an image of Talia in a mock-up of a CoverGirl campaign to her Instagram account, with the caption "In Loving Memory". Modern Family actress Sofia Vergara, who is currently holidaying in Mykonos, took to her Twitter to pay tribute to the smiley star. "My heart and thoughts are with Talia, the most beautiful & inspiring @Covergirl ever and with her loving family," she wrote.
Television producer Ryan Seacrest also tweeted his condolences, saying "I only met you once, but your memory is strong and your light will shine on. #riptalia. "Talia came to the public's attention when she met Ellen on The Ellen DeGeneres show in September 2012, after fans of the Youtube sensation started a campaign to make her dream of meeting the talk show host come true. "You really are quite something. There's a depth to your soul that is not a 13-year-old soul," Ellen said during her interview with Talia. "You're an old soul, and you are very special and amazing, and I'm so honoured that you wanted to meet me and that I got to meet you," she continued.
Talia was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2009 and had more recently been diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), an illness formerly known as preleukemia.The star's ultimate goal was to raise awareness about what it was like to suffer with cancer and share her experiences along the way through her videos.In an interview with The Truth 365, Talia was asked how she would like to be remembered. "In a hundred years, I would like to be remembered as the bubbly girl who wanted to do something about childhood cancer," she said.
