Baek Se-hee, (1990 – October 17, 2025) – the South Korean author best known for her memoir, titled I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, and its sequel I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki – passed away on October 17, 2025 at the age of 35. She sought help from a psychiatrist to cure her mental illness and shared all her pains with the latter. Although Baek has left this world, her books continue to inspire hundreds of people to live healthy lives. One can find details of her treatment for chronic depression, her conflicting thoughts about mental illness and also about issues, like comfort eating, self-harm and suicide, in her literary works.

The title of Baek’s publication triggered a sensation as she wanted to enjoy tteokbokki, a beloved Korean street food made of chewy rice cakes, called garae-tteok, stir-fried in a sweet and spicy sauce, in her final years. Her works help readers to realise that although she had a suicidal tendency, Baek wanted to find all the resources to live well. Each and every line of her books narrates the struggle of a person with depression. Published in 2018, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki has been translated into 25 languages so far and over one million copies of the book have been sold worldwide.

Baek Se-hee is recognised for her candid and vulnerable memoirs on mental health. Her memoirs can be considered a beacon of hope for depressed people who gradually sink into the abyss of loneliness. Baek was active on social media a year ago as she used to post various pictures occasionally. Her last post on Instagram was about her book.

The designer has used green and light pink colours in the cover of the English version of her publication. The cover is designed in such a manner that the pink part at the bottom looks like a dining table on which there are foods. A girl, holding chopsticks, sits in front of the table, with her head tilted. She looks at the food with melancholic eyes. The girl seems to convey Baek’s state of mind. Also, there is a pink circle on the cover and the text written inside it states: “Further conversations with my psychiatrist.” Baek took her last breath just a year after she posted the cover photo of her book on Instagram.

The Korea Organ Donation Agency (KODA) confirmed the news of Baek’s demise, mentioning in a statement that she had donated her heart, lungs, liver and both kidneys, reportedly saving five lives. Although the author had been suffering from depression for a long time, the organisation did not mention the cause of her death. “The love Baek shared at the end of her life after offering comfort and hope through her heartfelt writing has become a miracle that gives life to others,” cited Lee Sam-yeol, the Director of KODA. For his part, Anton Hur, Baek’s English translator and fellow author, stated: “Her readers will know she touched yet millions of lives more with her writing. My thoughts are with her family.”

Baek, the second of three sisters, was born in Goyang in the Seoul metropolitan area in 1990. As a child, she witnessed her abusive father beat her mother. After studying Creative Writing at Dongguk University, she joined a publishing company as a Social Media Director and worked there for five years. While working, she developed Dysthymia (persistent depressive disorder) and underwent psychiatric therapy for a decade. Interestingly, she shared her experience with others through her blog.

Baek published I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, the memoir about her experiences with the condition and therapy, in 2018. On Instagram, she wrote: “Volume 2 of I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki will be published on June 6. I hope you love it!” It was her final post on social media. She had over 14,000 followers on Instagram.

After Baek’s demise, her younger sister, Baek Da-hee, paid tribute to her sibling, stressing in a statement (released by the KODA) that her sister would be remembered as someone who “wrote, shared her heart with others through her writing and hoped to nurture dreams of hope”. Baek Da-hee further said: “I know her kind heart, one that loved so much and hated no one, so I hope she now rests in peace in heaven. I love you so much.”

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das