Grace VanderWaal
Grace Avery VanderWaal (Born January 15th, 2004) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress[1] whom Daniel Larson has had an obsession with since as early as 2021, despite her being notably underage. Daniel's obsession with Grace began during his hyper-fixation with fame and his desire to date a celebrity, namely during the time when he would watch America's Got Talent with his grandmother, Nancy Shimer.
Daniel is physically attracted to Grace and ever since his infatuation with her started, he has decided, without her knowledge or consent, that they are dating. This 'relationship' would progress quickly due to Daniel's delusions (mostly fed by fake managers and trolls), leading to his posts on his numerous social media accounts regarding her becoming far more explicit in nature, including but not limited to Daniel divulging sexual fantasies about Grace and the various unspeakable acts he'd commit towards her if he were to come into contact with her.
Daniel, well aware that Grace was only 17 at the start of his obsession, made various posts claiming that he would "wait until Grace is 18". Daniel has claimed to be in either a romantic or sexual relationship with Grace depending on his feelings (or delusions) at the time.[2] If romantic, he claimed that Grace was his girlfriend. If sexual, he explains the various explicit sexual acts he'd do to her. No matter what he is feeling, It is extremely disturbing no matter what.
Beginning on May 12th, 2021, Daniel claimed, though obviously untrue, that he and Grace had some sort of collaboration in the works that would be coming out soon. Things escalated quickly from there. Daniel, on several occasions, recorded himself telling random strangers on the streets that he was dating her. More disturbingly, Daniel recorded multiple videos of himself moaning and whispering in a sensual manner supposedly for her. He posted hysterical videos about her allegedly "breaking up" with him. Although Daniel would make several apologies for the multiple sexually charged videos he made about her, he would continue this disgusting behavior. Regardless of malicious trolls tricking and persuading him into thinking that he was dating Grace, Daniel went above and beyond to show his unbridled obsession with her.
Daniel seems to hold Grace in particularly high regard. Thus, Grace is oftentimes the primary victim of Daniel's harassment and delusions. Every once in a while, posts made by Grace on TikTok or Instagram would be filled to the brim with comments from Daniel as if he were having a conversation with her in real time. Furthermore, in any TikTok posts that Daniel made that regarded Grace, he would tag her, which would result in her notifications being filled with nothing but Daniel. One of Daniel's TikTok accounts was suspended for his constant harassment towards her.[3]
During one particular delusion, Daniel, seemingly because he is without access to his phone, posts on TikTok for people to get him information. Based on the content of these videos, he is under the impression that there has been some kind of accident and that the VanderWaal family, whom he believes were in contact with him up until this point, is refusing to give him information regarding something he claims to have happened to Grace. Throughout the video, Daniel hits himself and threatens to end his own life. He did not follow through with his threats.
On the 4th of July 2021, Daniel uploaded a video to YouTube mourning the supposed deaths of Dave (Grace's father) and Grace VanderWaal. In this video, Daniel believed that Grace had simultaneously committed suicide and suffered a heart attack. Before Daniel addresses the supposed deaths, however, he cried and apologized for sexting minors and sending Grace, or whoever he thought was Grace, pictures of his genitalia. He promised to repent for the bad choices he had made and honor her legacy.[4]
Eventually, Daniel discovered that Grace had not died, and continued his regular obsessive posting about her as if nothing had ever happened. Grace has never publicly acknowledged Daniel, but according to messages from her mother, Tina VanderWaal, she wants nothing to do with him. Grace is often impersonated by "trolls", who use her identity to gain Daniel's trust. Daniel is easily fooled by this due to either his sickening lust for her or his obvious mental issues. On multiple occasions, Daniel has made a fool of himself by talking to these trolls and sending revealing, and even illegal, material to them. Even when acknowledging that there are multiple people pretending to be Grace to gain his trust, he never manages to completely acknowledge that these people are actually trolls, lest he have to accept that Grace and her family are absolutely horrified by Daniel and want nothing to do with him.
Despite the fact he likely has internalized the real VanderWaals are scared of him, he still reposts photos of Grace on Instagram and is known to comment on her various platforms.
Contact
Grace has never publicly acknowledged Daniel despite thousands of spamming attempts and posts by Daniel and hundreds of trolls, including in her TikTok comments. However, this obsession culminated into Daniel being contacted on July 25th 2022 by Grace's mother, Tina VanderWaal. Although, it was not on the best of terms. Tina, through messenger, demands that Daniel stop making contact with her family, especially her daughter, and that all of Daniel's actions and feelings are in his own mind. Along with this, she claims to be in contact with the police, and if Daniel refuses to stop making videos about her daughter, she will presumably press the issue to becoming a legal matter. This has still not happened. Following this, Daniel responds by stating that he understands but will be ending his life that night. He does not, most likely saying it as a way to guilt-trip her.
"Stop saying my daughters name. Stop saying you are in a relationship with her. You are scaring her and our family. Everything you have said and done has been in your own mind. You need to access some mental health support and stop harassing my daughter. I have contacted the authorities and will continue to press the issue of you don't stop making disturbing videos. You followers have harassed my daughter long enough. STOP. " -Tina VanderWaal, confronting Daniel.
This interaction with Grace's mother would be the focus of multiple videos and community posts for quite some time after. Daniel would post multiple videos crying and/or hysterically apologizing to the VanderWaal family, continuously addressing the "Allegations", which fluctuated from admitting his misdeeds, to pretending they had never happened at all.
In an act of what can only be described as pity, mixed with empathy, Tina made a comment on one of his livestreams begging him to stop his obsessive posting about her and her family, once again.
"God Daniel….. do you think I’m watching your lives? whoever just contacted you claiming to be me was not me. I have no idea who Ox even is. I don’t want you to talk about Grace or our family anymore. I have only replied to you once when you DM’d me a couple of weeks ago - then I told you to stop saying Grace’s name but clearly you refuse to listen. Stop all of this. Everyone communicating with you are trolls trying to get you to do crazy things. Please STOP." -Tina VanderWaal
Upon receiving this message, and instead of stopping at her request, Daniel kept on pressing her with responses, asking her questions and various other things, which did not receive responses from Tina. Tina sent many public messages to Daniel on the account of Daniel's constant, strong penchant of censoring messages he has been sent so he can be seen in a better light. Disregarding her messages, Daniel continued to post about Tina, Grace, and the VanderWaal team.
"I do mind. Stop everything to do with our family ESPECIALLY my daughter. You are making me reply publicly so you can’t censor what I’m actually saying to you. I’ve spoken to DDRC as well as the Denver police and Denver FBI. Do you really want to continue this? Again, just stop. Your reality is not real." -Tina's third, and final comment to Daniel.
Daniel responded to these posts by asking even more for forgiveness, claiming things got "fucked up" because of his supposed "past friendships", although once again, he never received a response. As of 2023, this was the last comment or message Tina has verifiably sent to Daniel.
Gallery of all of Tina's comments to Daniel/His responses.
