Tess Marie Mata loved to dance and dreamed of one day going viral on TikTok. But the 10-year-old boy was too young to create an account on the platform.
Last Tuesday, a few days before summer vacation, Tess was one of 21 pupils and teachers who were shot dead in their primary school classroom in Uvalde. Tess’ family is now achieving their dream of viral fame.
Related: 10-year-old Uvalde shooting victim Amerie Jo Garza receives Girl Scouts’ highest honor
Because TikTok requires users to be at least 13 years old to create an account, Tess created more than 150 video drafts and saved them to her mother Veronica Meta’s account, her uncle Robert Hill told CNN.
Following Tess’ death, Mata posted a TikTok video of her daughter doing a dance routine to Don Toliver’s “No Idea,” a song often used in challenges on the platform.
The video was captioned: “My sweet baby girl. She was taken from us because of a senseless act during a mass shooting. I never allowed Tess to post her videos because she was so young. But today I want to celebrate her by trying to fulfill her wish by becoming famous on TikTok. #uvaldestrong.
Hill reposted the video on his account, urging users to help make the video go viral.
As of Wednesday, the video had garnered over 200,000 views and 32,900 likes.
Lance Bass, a member of boy band NSYNC, is among 2,583 commenters on Tess’s video. His death “breaks my heart,” Bass wrote on Saturday. The video was also shared by Kourtney Kardashian and Kylie Jenner.
One of Tess’ favorite bands was BTS, Hill told CNN. He hoped that the video would eventually reach them.
“It’s something we really want to see happen for her,” he said.
He added: “It’s hard to figure that out yet. I wish she was here to see that.
