Nara Smith reveals 2-year-old daughter was diagnosed with cancer

Model and influencer Nara Smith revealed that her 2-year-old daughter, Whimsy Lou, has cancer.

Limited time: Save 25% on NBC News subscription

Get exclusive reporting, live Q&As and ad-free reading.

Smith said the family received the diagnosis late last year after she and her husband, Lucky Blue Smith, noticed “something suspicious” on Whimsy and took her to the emergency room.

“They didn’t quite know what to make of it,” she said in an Instagram video posted Wednesday. “When we took her into our pediatrician, I just remember him going really quiet and calm, and my heart dropped in that moment. I don’t know whether it was my gut telling me something or just a mom’s intuition, but the first thing that I felt was she has cancer.”

The pediatrician advised them to take Whimsy to the hospital, Smith said, where she was diagnosed. The “Homemade” cookbook author, who has often go viral for making elaborate meals and snacks from scratch, said doctors told them the cancer had spread and that Whimsy needed to begin chemotherapy immediately.

She did not reveal the type of cancer Whimsy has.

“Throughout all of this, I have been on a plethora of forums, social media, also talked to parents and family in the hospital and all of that combined really brought me a lot of comfort and alleviated the feeling of loneliness for me,” she said.

Smith said that processing and navigating the diagnosis “has been really hard.”

“Having found all of this out and navigating this while postpartum, also loving and caring for our other kids at home, also being in the hospital with Whimsy a lot and balancing work on top of that has been really challenging,” she said.

Smith and her husband share three other children: Rumble Honey, 5, Slim Easy, 4, and Fawnie Golden, who was born last year.