Uvalde victim, 10, dreamed of being 'TikTok famous' - now family want to fulfill her dreams

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By Carina Murphy

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The family of ten-year-old Tess Marie Mata - who was tragically killed in the Uvalde school shooting last week - is trying to fulfill her dreams.

Last Tuesday, an 18-year-old gunman stormed into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and opened fire on a classroom of children. Two teachers and 19 children were murdered in the devastating massacre, including Tess.

According to her family, the 10-year-old wanted nothing more than to become TikTok famous one day when she was old enough to have an account.

Now, her family has told CNN that they are doing everything they can to make that dream a reality.

Tess's uncle Robert Hill explained how his niece would prepare for her future social media fame by making videos and saving them to her mom Veronica's account. She planned to post them when she turned 13 - the minimum age to have an account on the platform.

"She had over 150 videos drafted," said Hill. He went on to explain how "we were going through all of them and talking about how she always wanted one of her dances to go viral," when the idea to post the clips occurred to family members.

They selected a video of Tess dancing to Don Toliver's hit 'No Idea' and posted it to Veronica's account with a heartbreaking caption.

"My sweet baby girl. She was taken from us because of a senseless act in 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 TikTok famous. #uvaldestrong," the grieving mom wrote.

Her uncle reshared the video on his own TikTok account to help it gain more viewers. It wasn't long before the clip started attracting attention; since Hill posted it a few days ago, it has already racked up over 108,000 views, 39,000 likes, and thousands of comments.

Two of those comments came from verified TikTok users - stars Paris Hilton and Lance Bass.

"Breaks my heart," Bass wrote, while Hilton commented: "So sorry for your loss... Sending lots of love to you and your family."

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Credit: TikTok
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Credit: TikTok

"We were excited because after that, we kind of knew that this was going to happen for her," Hill said of Bass and Hilton's comments. "Unfortunately, she just can't be around to see it."

"It's hard to still wrap my head around this," he continued. "I wish she was around to see this."

Featured Image Credit: Xinhua / Alamy