Bianca Devins was an American 17 year old teenager from Utica, New york. Bianca was described as "a bright light" who Bianca's mother Kim Devins called her best friend.

Bianca had a close bond with her sisters and found solace in drawing. But after being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, Bianca struggled to make connections with other teens. Like many, she turned to social media to find a sense of community.

"She had a lot of struggles with her mental health," said Kim Devins." But even in her darkest times, she would help others. Sometimes, when she was struggling, she couldn't always follow her own advice, but she always received good advice from her friends."

"I think she found it difficult with her disorder as she got older," Devins continued. "She found it harder to connect with people in real life, as they would say. And on the internet, she did find a community of people who were going through similar things or struggling with the same disorder that she had."¹

Beyond her online persona, Bianca was also recognized as a budding model and a talented artist.  "She would have been a famous model hands down," Mae Scialdone, a talent agent and Bianca's mentor "She would have gone to the top quickly. Her future was just so bright. She was just next level in so many different ways."

"I don't think that anyone really knows, like, how strong of an aura and a presence that she was," Scialdone added. "I'm hard to impress. And she impressed me." Scialdone described Bianca as "radiant and glowing".

My sister was a beautiful girl with a beautiful heart and she lit up every room she walked into - Olivia Devins, Bianca's sister²

The 17 year old had recently graduated from high school and was looking forward to starting a psychology course at a community college later this year.³

Judging from her Instagram account and testimonies from those who knew her, Bianca Devins was a talented and creative young artist. She had a strong interest in anime, alternative subcultures, and online communities, where she often expressed herself through visual aesthetics. Bianca enjoyed fashion and frequently experimented with her appearance, using style as a form of identity and emotional expression.⁴

On July 13, 2019, Bianca was horrifically murdered by her friend, Brandon Clark.⁵ It is believed that Clark met Bianca on Instagram in April 2019 after he started following her on the social media platform. Although cops described their friendship as a "personally intimate one", friends and family claimed otherwise.

Devins told her mother that she had explained to Clark that she did not want to date him, though Devins' mother thought that he still "wanted more." Bianca, Clark, and a mutual friend named Alex attended a performance by Canadian singer Nicole Dollanganger in New York City.⁶

"She was just so happy," said Devins. "I remember we were both getting ready. She was heading to the concert, and I was getting ready to go to a graduation party. She came up behind me and gave me a big hug. She said, 'I love you.' And I said, 'I love you. Be safe.' Those were our last words to each other."¹

Following the concert, Clark and Devins returned to their hometown of Utica before becoming embroiled in an argument believed to have been sparked by a kiss between Devins and Alex. Eventually, Clark killed her with a knife.Devins died from her severe injuries in the early hours of the morning of July 14.⁶

Brandon Clark then uploaded footage and images of her dead body to social media. Within days, the disturbing content had gone viral and been shared with Bianca's family and friends.⁵ The images quickly circulated on Instagram, where they were shared and reshared and modified and shared some more. And as they spread, so did public outrage toward the social media company for its inability to do anything to stop it.⁷

Some of the first people to discuss the murder were users on website 4chan - a barely moderated internet messageboard where users can post anonymously. Users on the forum on Sunday celebrated "another 4chan murder" and discussed her death in offensive and misogynistic terms, victim-blaming and even photoshopping the graphic images of her into sadistic memes.⁸

On Sunday morning, July 14, Kim Devins, Bianca's mother was woken up by the Utica police ringing her doorbell. They were performing a welfare check because someone saw something online that led them to believe that Clark may have hurt Bianca.

The house began to fill with concerned friends and family members. They stood around, looking at their phones and waiting for an update. Then, a friend of Kim's 15-year-old daughter Olivia made a tortured sound. Someone had direct messaged her the picture. A photo of Bianca's murder made its way into Kim's house before her daughter's body had even been identified.

Immediately, Kim's family and friends reported the image to Instagram and to the police. But instead of removing the photos instantly, as Kim's family expected, Instagram responded that the photos either did not violate Instagram's community guidelines, which dictate what is allowable content, or that they could remain up with a sensitive content warning, which blurred the photo but allowed users to click through to see it.

"Both Instagram and Facebook overstated how quickly they took the pictures down," said Kim Devins. "There were pictures found on Facebook well into September, buried in comments and cover photos. I posted a tribute to Bianca with music, the post was immediately muted due to copyright. However, the graphic and violent photo of my daughter after she was murdered was allowed to be spread."

In the days following her daughter's death, trolls plastered Kim's social media accounts with the images in an unrelenting digital attack. Others used the photos to gain new followers, and falsely claimed to have video of the attack. On top of the realization that her daughter was gone, she had to contend with the knowledge that strangers were reveling in her family's greatest pain.

I'm disgusted. I just kept saying, 'What is wrong with this world that you think that’s acceptable?' I don't understand it. She's someone's daughter. - Kim Devins, Bianca's mother

In the absence of action by Instagram, frustrated social media users stepped up to help. They flooded Instagram with photos of pink clouds tagged with #RIPBianca, so that anyone who looked up the hashtag would see positive images, not gore. For Bianca's mother, the choice of pink clouds by strangers was oddly perfect. In Bianca's bedroom on the wall closest to Bianca's bed, she had painted a perfect rectangle of dreamy pink clouds.⁷

Throughout her life, Bianca was loved by her family and friends. She is survived by her mother and two younger sisters. Growing up, Bianca and her mum were the best of friends. The pair would figure skate together along with Kim's younger daughter, Olivia.⁵

Bianca's family said in a written statement that the teen was "a talented artist, a loving sister, daughter, and cousin, and a wonderful young girl, taken from us all too soon". They said: "Bianca's smile brightened our lives. She will always be remembered as our Princess."⁹

As they prepared for Bianca's funeral, her family also launched a scholarship fund in her name, in the hope that others can fulfil her dream of helping young people with mental illness. Kimberly Devins has thanked those who shared support for the family, and implored people to continue spreading the message of "love, not violence" in her daughter's name. "You have provided us much comfort in this unimaginably difficult time."³

Kim Devins months after Bianca's murder finally came out of a state of shock. For months, it hadn't sunk in that Bianca was gone. These days, it feels more real. When she is in the kitchen, she feels her daughter's absence the most. They used to wash and dry dishes together. Now Kim does it alone. So much of her life was shared with Bianca that it feels odd doing things without her.⁷

Kim Devins has tirelessly campaigned for Bianca's Law, a bid to see social media held accountable for allowing these pictures to be distributed on their channels. In 2022 she has managed to make it illegal to upload graphic images of crime scenes online in New York - now she wants to see the rest of the world follow suit.

Losing my daughter in such horrific circumstances was like no pain I've ever endured, but seeing her like that was a living nightmare. Knowing that her death was being exploited and mocked by trolls online is a trauma no family should ever suffer. Social media companies need to be accountable for allowing graphic content to be shared. - Kim Devins.⁵