Photo: Marcus Valentine
“That’s my boy!”
3-year-old Mali Valentine was blown away when his favorite Disney character, Mickey Mouse, took the ice during a Philadelphia performance. So he shouted the first thing that came to mind: “That’s my boy!” Then came the tears – happy tears, of course.
Diamonique’s video of her son and Mickey Mouse has almost 3 million views
You probably caught the wholesome moment on Instagram or TikTok earlier this year. If you haven’t, grab some tissues and go watch it now, we’ll wait.
Camden native Diamonique Valentine uploaded the video – which showed her husband Marcus becoming emotional at his son’s excitement and lots of hugs between the three – to her account where she has shared her breast cancer journey, two pregnancies and plenty of lifestyle highlights.
But even with her 1 million TikTok followers and over 450K Instagram followers, the response to the video was a bit surprising. (Today, the original video has 2.3 million likes on her Instagram account and has been shared by many content pages including Good Morning America and The Shade Room.)
Then, an even bigger surprise came: Disney reached out to fly the family to Walt Disney World, stay at a resort and meet the big mouse himself.
“It really made you realize there’s a lot of good in the world,” she says. “The email said, ‘We’ve been tagged more times than you’d believe.’”
The family’s surprise trip to Disney – complete with a Cars-themed room – was the latest, but certainly not the first, adventure as social media influencers. It all started nearly a decade ago when Diamonique and Marcus shared joint TikTok and Instagram accounts called VictoriousValentines.
They shared their lives, from owning a smoothie shop in Camden to supporting each other through marriage and making yearly goals for the kind of people they wanted to be in this world.
Then Diamonique was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 27. In a way, she had to fight for her diagnosis. She asked her doctor for a breast exam because she had a feeling, and the doctor was dismissive, but did a quick exam and found nothing. A month later, Diamonique felt a lump. Her doctor ordered a mammogram, but when she tried to make the appointment, there was a hold on her insurance.
“I couldn’t believe that for all these years, I had been paying and then I missed two months and they would put a hold where I couldn’t get a screening,” she says. “So I was Googling and found a program called NJCEED.”
The New Jersey Cancer Education and Early Detection program offers free cancer screenings, education and outreach for a number of cancers. But Diamonique had to wait another month to get an appointment.
Almost three months after that first exam, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, with a tumor that had grown to 5.9 centimeters. “I was diagnosed with Stage III, and I possibly could have been Stage I or II if I was just able to get that screening,” she says. “So my goal is to share resources and programs but also help get the word out and get policies changed so that no matter what your insurance is at the time, screening should be available and accessible for everybody.”
“When I was diagnosed, I was looking for young women who look like me, to see women winning the fight against cancer, and I didn’t see them. I was looking to be something that I needed for myself.”
That especially goes for women of color, she says, who are 40% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women. “It starts in the doctor’s office with better care and goes all the way up to better treatments and better trials to help lower that percentage.”
Diamonique became a guiding light for women who were grappling with their own diagnosis as she documented her journey on the couple’s accounts, sharing video of shaving her head, changes she made to her diet and her partnerships with organizations who work to get the word out and offer screenings.
“It’s sad how many messages I get in a day from people going through this,” she says. “When I was diagnosed, I was looking for young women who look like me, to see women winning the fight against cancer, and I didn’t see them. I was looking to be something that I needed for myself.”
Diamonique had her last chemo treatment in August of 2020, almost a year after her diagnosis. Through her recovery, she leaned on her husband, Marcus, who she calls her co-survivor. “He might not have physically had cancer, but he saw it from the outside. He would always say, ‘I wish I could just do this for you.’ It’s who he’s always been, but I can’t imagine what it’s like seeing a person you love go through so much.”
The two continued to post on their account: their adventures, adopting a non-toxic lifestyle (replacing most household products with non-toxic alternatives) and announcing the arrival of Mali.
They call Mali their miracle baby, because motherhood wasn’t a guarantee. Doctors had asked Diamonique when she was diagnosed if she wanted to have kids, because infertility is often a side effect of the treatment. “I had to make two life-changing decisions on top of each other,” she says. “I was really overwhelmed, but I decided God will make me a mom somehow, some way, whether it’s from me, we adopt or foster.”
She and Marcus began trying shortly after her last chemo treatment, and Mali was born in 2022.
Diamonique gave birth to another baby boy last year. The Valentines call Mahzi their rainbow baby.
Life looks pretty different from those early days online, when the Valentines would post as newlyweds and ignore brand deals unless they sent free snacks. For one, the couple is about to celebrate their ten year anniversary. They also decided to split up the channel last year. (And yes, some people thought they had broken up!)
“We want to see each other shine,” Diamonique says. “He has goals and dreams, and I have mine. We are so willing to serve the other person and put away pride and ego for the betterment of our team, our marriage.”
Today, the channel handle is DiamoniqueValentine, and while posts still include the whole family, it leans more into Diamonique’s journey as a mother and breast cancer survivor.
But one thing hasn’t changed, Diamonique is still building a community. It’s something she and Marcus have wanted since day one, inspired by Diamonique’s childhood in Camden, where she was raised in a house with her mom, her aunt and seven children.
“A village raised me,” she says. “My grandmother lived across the street, and you knew everyone in those houses. No matter what I do, how much money I’m earning, I want to be part of a community. If I can be a contribution to anyone’s life, be a part of making someone’s life better, that’s always the goal.”
