Just days before she would have turned 25, content creator Misha Agarwal passed away on April 24, 2025. The news was confirmed by her family through a post on her Instagram account. In a deeply emotional update shared later, her family revealed that Misha had died by suicide, driven by a growing sense of fear and despair linked to her career in social media.
According to her family, Misha had been struggling with profound sadness, especially in recent months as she began losing followers on Instagram. This decline deeply affected her. She had poured herself into her online presence, building her identity and ambitions around the dream of reaching one million followers. So strong was her focus on that milestone that she had even made it the lock screen on her phone.
In a heartfelt public statement, her family shared, “My little baby sister had built her world around Instagram and her followers, with a single goal of reaching 1 million followers and gaining loving fans. When her followers started decreasing, she became distraught and felt worthless. Since April, she had been deeply depressed, often hugging me and crying, saying, ‘Jijja, what will I do if my followers decrease? My career will be over’.”
They spoke of trying to support her through her distress, reminding her that Instagram, while important to her, wasn’t the sum of her identity. They urged her to see beyond the numbers, emphasizing her many achievements and potential beyond the digital world.
“I reminded her of her talents, her LLB degree, and her preparation for PCSJ, telling her that she’ll become a judge one day and doesn’t need to worry about her career,” read the statement.
Despite their reassurances, the pull of validation through social media had taken a heavy toll. “Unfortunately, my little sister didn’t listen and became so consumed by Instagram and followers that she left our world forever. Tragically, she became so overwhelmed that she took her own life, leaving our family devastated,” the family’s statement concluded.
Misha’s story is a heartbreaking reflection of the mental pressures that can accompany digital fame, especially for young creators chasing visibility in an ever-shifting online world.
