Shirley Raines, an activist who built an online following by documenting her efforts to give food, clothing, hygiene products and makeovers to people without a home, died on Tuesday at her home in Las Vegas. She was 58.
Her death was confirmed by her oldest daughter, Danielle Williams, who said that the cause had not yet been determined. The nonprofit organization Ms. Raines founded, Beauty 2 the Streetz, also announced her death in a statement on Wednesday.
Her millions of followers on TikTok and Instagram knew her as Ms. Shirley. She approached people living on the streets with food and toiletries, sometimes dying their hair at what she called her outdoor beauty salon.
Though she operated beyond Los Angeles, she was particularly known for working with the homeless population on Skid Row in the city’s downtown.
She posted her interactions on social media, where she introduced viewers to the people with whom she developed relationships, sometimes featuring them as a recurring cast of characters. She called them “kings and queens.”
“People have grown to love some of the people that we support and take care of,” Ms. Raines told The New York Times in 2023. “It’s become a little internet family.”
Shirley Diane Raines was born in Compton, Calif., on Dec. 29, 1967. Her father, George Raines, was an officer for the Los Angeles Police Department, and her mother, Shirley (Harrison) Raines, was a secretary, Ms. Williams said.
Ms. Raines developed Beauty 2 the Streetz from her volunteer work. It was borne of her own experiences living without a home around 1990, a period during which her 2-year-old son, Demetrius J. Stephens Jr., died of accidental poisoning.
She went on to have more children, moved to Inglewood, Calif., and worked over the years as a 411 operator, fitness instructor and a medical biller.
“I would like the world to know that I’m a broken woman who buried a child, I take 20mg of prozac every day and I suffer from anxiety/panic disorder,” she said in a 2020 interview with Shoutout LA, a local magazine. “I’m not waiting for things to be better for me but I’m pushing through my own personal crap to live out my purpose.”
She said styling her hair and doing her nails and makeup had helped her deal with emotional pain, including grief and suicidal thoughts.
“For the brief time I spent each day loving my body, I was able to feel like me,” she wrote in Cosmopolitan in 2022, describing a ritual that included crafting adventurous hairstyles and colorful manicures. “When I focused on self-care, on making myself look good, I felt good.”
In 2017, her twin sister implored her to find more emotional stability, prompting Ms. Raines to follow a friend to a volunteering event to help homeless people in Los Angeles. There, she built a rapport with some of the women she met who complimented her hair and makeup.
One day, she returned to the event with beauty products and a bucket of hot water, dyeing women’s hair and handing out makeup kits. That attracted a large following, encouraging her to build a team of volunteers.
It grew into Beauty 2 the Streetz, which she registered as a nonprofit in 2019. Through the organization, she continued to dye the hair of women she met and feed hundreds of people each week, mostly on Skid Row — work that she called “spiritual C.P.R.”
“I have a queen right now; we did her hair purple a couple weeks ago,” she said of one person in 2023. “I’ve never seen her smile so big. Her hair, all the purple has washed out, but her smile is still the same, because of the lasting effects of all the praise she got when her hair was colored.”
“Those things don’t wash off,” she added.
Advocates for the homeless praised her. “These kinds of efforts that allow people to connect at a very individual level and be seen, I think, are hugely important for self-esteem,” said Ben Henwood, director of the Center for Homelessness, Housing and Health Equity Research at the University of Southern California.
In 2021, she was chosen as CNN’s Hero of the Year. She was featured in Time magazine’s list of notable creators last year, and was named 2025’s Outstanding Social Media Personality in the N.A.A.C.P. Image Awards.
In 2023, she said her growing celebrity was tough on her children. “When they were growing up, I was a woman with a short temper, partying, never had money for them to do anything,” she said. “The world is calling me an angel, and they don’t see me as an angel.”
Ms. Williams said that Ms. Raines had moved late last year to Las Vegas, where she continued to post videos about her work with the homeless.
Besides Ms. Williams, Ms. Raines is survived by her mother, Shirley Raines; twin sister, Sheila Watkins; sons, Dalvion Stephens, Micah Vanderhorst and Macajiah Vanderhorst; and daughter Rashawn Williams.
Ms. Raines’s organization said in its statement that her death was devastating to the people she served in Los Angeles and Nevada.
“She used her powerful media platform to amplify the voices of those in need and to bring dignity, resources, and hope to some of the most underserved populations,” it said.
John Yoon is a Times reporter based in Seoul who covers breaking and trending news.
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