Sarah Stern was deeply involved in an online community that is not bound by geographic location, but rather its passion for YouTube and digital arts.
NEPTUNE CITY -- Sarah Stern was well-known and loved by many in the tight-knit Jersey Shore community she grew up in, friends and family say.
But another community Stern, 19, was deeply involved in is reeling from the loss of "one of their own."
This community is not bound by geographic location, but rather its passion for YouTube and digital arts.
Sarah Stern, right, with YouTube star Grace Helbig. Stern traveled long distances, friends and family say, to attend conferences and surround herself with people who shared her same interests -- art, graphic design, YouTube shows and video bloggers (known as Vloggers). Her Twitter page is full of images of her posing with YouTube stars, short videos with friends and her drawings of the people who inspired her the most.
NJ Advance Media interviewed Stern's friends from across the world, who all praised her as an easy-going but inspirational person who could spark a conversation with anyone she stood next to in line.
"She was just a good kid who followed her heart," Stern's father, Michael Stern, said in a recent interview with NJ Advance Media. "She liked art and media and she was a big YouTube fan. ... She had a good future in either media or art."
Stern said his daughter was an "open, good-hearted person," and that those traits allowed her to easily meet people at conferences.
It's at one of these conferences where she met Caroline Belle. Belle, 23, of Los Angeles, works in a YouTube space and was able to get Sarah behind stage at events. They bonded over their love of a trio of YouTubers -- Grace Helbig, Hannah Hart and Mamrie Hart -- who refer to themselves as the "Holy Trinity."
Stern and Belle traveled together to see live tapings of the Holy Trinity shows.
"I think interacting with these role models - these YouTubers - brought out the best in her and always made her happy," Belle said. "She was at her best when she was with them."
Stern was also an avid fan of popular Los Angeles-based video blogger Julien Solomita and his girlfriend, Jenna Marbles. Their fan base, which refers to themselves as the "Dink family," has expressed an outpouring of support since news of Stern's death spread throughout the community.
On Feb. 2, the day authorities announced one of Stern's childhood friends strangled her and another friend, her junior prom date, helped dump her body over the Route 35 bridge in Belmar, Solomita aired a tribute to Stern on YouTube, entitled "losing one of our own," that was viewed by more than 440,000 people.
"Sarah was one of the nicest, most genuine people i've (sic) had the opportunity to meet," reads text in the video, with an image of a field in the backdrop. "She was part of the 'secret family' before the dink fam even existed. ... To Sarah's family; our deepest thoughts and condolences go out to you. Your daughter was a ray of sunshine that transcended your world and shined on ours."
R.I.P. Sarah Stern
"goodness is something chosen. when a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man" -anthony burgess pic.twitter.com/sJRy0XMgNR
-- Julien [?] (@JulienSolomita) February 2, 2017
Her love of Solomita and Marbles brought her friends from all over the world, some of whom she never actually met in person but chatted online with regularly.
Nikki Darrell, 22, of New Zealand, said she video-chatted with Stern every couple months. Darrell said Stern "radiated positivity" and was the "biggest encourager."
"She had a way of bringing joy into any situation," Darrell said in an online message. "She was incredibly kind and sweet to me, a person on the opposite side of the world that she (never met in person). She was instantly friends with every person she met."
Benjamin Sheaffer, who lives outside State College, Pa., said he met Stern at a convention in Secaucus in 2014. He said they stayed in touch here and there, but he was at VidCon in Anaheim, Calif., in the summer when he heard someone call out his name. It was Stern.
They got close at that convention, sharing meals together and bonding over their love for Hart and Helbig, the YouTube stars.
"She was one of the most laid back people I think I have ever met," Sheaffer said. "I didn't ever see her having a problem with anyone or an issue (with anyone), which makes this whole scenario so weird."
Stern really had a passion for the artistic side of the YouTube community, Sheaffer said. She recently drew a sketch to be used in the series "In Human Condition" for the YouTube channel KindaTV, according to her Twitter page.
Her passion for the arts, Michael Stern said, started when she was in high school. At Neptune High School, Stern was an athlete, earning a spot on the varsity softball team as a freshman. She was also a member of the swim team. But as a senior, her interests in sports began tapering off.
But her artistic talents, specifically her pencil sketches and water coloring, had blossomed, Michael Stern said.
She and other students from high school would take trips to Nagles in Ocean Grove, and she would help paint murals on the windows during the holiday season.
"That's the kind of thing she liked to do," Stern said.
Stern recalled in a recent interview taking a trip with his daughter out to Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World and the two going on The Great Movie Ride. In one part of the ride, it passes an image of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) from the movie "Alien" holding a flamethrower as she prepares to encounter a creature from another ship.
After the ride, Sarah drew a picture of the scene and gave it to her dad. A picture of the sketch is prominently displayed on her Twitter page.
Sigourney Weaver as Ripley from the movie Aliens. Drawn in ink [?] pic.twitter.com/TQkxS2nRrY
-- Sarah Stern (@Sarah_Lee_Stern) November 14, 2016
"It came up in the last few years," Stern said of his daughter's passion for art. "She just started with all this stuff and she'd come home with sculptures and figures and drawings."
She had a keen interest in science fiction and fantasy, and would often draw pictures of the YouTubers she loved.
Stern also had a knack for photography, Michael Stern said. She was able to get the perfect shot in just one take. One of her cousins is a wedding photographer, and Sarah would accompany her on shoots.
"She just knew how to get it just right," he said. "That's kind of how she was. (She would) go out and one photograph would do it."
After graduating high school in 2015, Stern attended Brookdale Community College and took classes in television production and art. She worked during the summer as a beach badge checker in Bradley Beach and saved her money.
But her travels to conventions in California and Toronto showed her a world where average people were following their dreams and amassing large amounts of followers on YouTube in the process.
That appealed to Stern and made her want to leave her life behind in Neptune City for Toronto, friends and family said.
Michael Stern supported her desire to travel, he said, but wanted his daughter to stay in school. If she wanted to move to Toronto, he suggested she go to a college there or study abroad.
Belle, the YouTube friend from Los Angeles, said Stern talked about moving to Toronto sometime this year.
"She had a lot of ambitions to travel and wanted to continue doing her art," Belle said. "Beyond that, she was young, she was 19. I don't think anyone knows what they want to do when they are 19. I just know she came from a community that is constantly inspiring each other."
Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.