Influencer Noticed Daughter's Eye 'Moving Strangely.' Days Later, She's Diagnosed with Brain Tumor (Exclusive)

"My page is about fashion and fun and Ryder, through her chemo, has had energy and she wants to style me and do fun things still," Amy Roiland says

While Amy Roiland's TikTok account was for years devoted to personal style, the fashion blogger has more recently focused on something closer to the heart: the diagnosis of her daughter, 4-year-old Ryder, with a brain tumor.

In a recent post on TikTok, Roiland, who was nine months pregnant at the time with her second child, shared the news.

"On Friday (Dec. 15th) we noticed Ryder's right eye was moving strangely, and we weren't sure what was going on," shared Roiland, who goes by the handle @afashionnerd on TikTok and Instagram.

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She and her husband, Ben Bayouth, scheduled a check-up with Ryder's doctor that following Monday.

By Tuesday, Ryder had undergone an emergency MRI and doctors made the determination that she had a tumor in her brain.

Initially, they were told it was cancerous and likely spreading.

Then a few days later, the couple had the opportunity to get a second opinion at the children's hospital.

"Five minutes after looking at the imaging, [the doctor] was like, 'This is glioma,' " Bayouth says. "Our oncologist has said that technically, this is some type of cancer but it's low-grade and unlikely to spread."

Still, doctors needed to perform surgery in order to determine that the tumor was indeed a glioma.

Ryder has so far undergone two surgeries — a two-hour biopsy in December, which was inconclusive and "a huge let down," Bayouth says.

The second four-hour, open-brain biopsy was even more difficult — though it determined that the little girl did indeed have a slow-growing, low-grade glioma located in her optic pathway and affecting the vision in her right eye.

As part of a larger treatment plan, the focus is now on slowing the growth and shrinking the tumor with routine chemotherapy treatments.

"She does chemotherapy every Wednesday for the next 15 months," Roiland says.

There have been other changes, as well, like a port that Ryder had to get installed to allow doctors easy access during the weekly treatments. She also has to take a cocktail of medications every week to deal with side effects of the chemo.

As Bayouth tells PEOPLE, Ryder is keeping in good spirits — though there are many tough moments.

"We're finding a rhythm," he says. "Little kids find things upsetting — like peeling tape off your skin, she hates that. It's a battle that involves tears. The chemo days are long, we get there at 8 in the morning, and we don't get home until 3."

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In an effort to maintain a sense of normalcy, the couple works to distract Ryder during her weekly treatments.

"We bought an art box, and I'm slowly painting a castle with her, we're watching shows with her," Bayouth says, with Roiland adding that some of the toys are "slowly teaching her to sit still."

Even with the obvious challenges, Roiland says she's tried to maintain life as usual at home, too. Part of that means filming videos in which Ryder dresses up and styles Roiland, and sharing them to social media.

"My page is about fashion and fun and Ryder, through her chemo, has had energy and she wants to style me and do fun things still," Roiland says. "I don't want people to think she's sickly and on a bed somewhere."

She continues: "Initially, when something like this happens, you think, 'Let me sit on the couch and cry all day.' But Ryder still wants to take walks, she wants to get dressed in the morning."

"Kids are incredibly resilient," Bayouth adds. "The day Ryder had surgery, she was running around the house hours later."

Still, the couple admits navigating the new normal is a challenge, particularly considering Ryder's age.

"We're hiding some of the details to spare her ... it's better for her not to know everything going on," Bayouth says. "As a parent, you're making these big decisions for someone else that doesn't know better and often involve your child to be put through things that are really tortuous. It's hard to be the driving force pushing her through this trauma. We just hope everything we're going through is all worth it."

Roiland — who welcomed the couple's second baby, son Rockwell Benjamin, in April — tells PEOPLE that her decision to share their journey on social media (and on her typically fashion-focused accounts) centered on two things: wanting to offer other parents hope, and show that life goes on even with the considerable challenges that arise from confronting a child's serious health issue.

"We were told so many things — in the beginning, that it was a horrible cancer ... I wanted to make sure I was fully educated and had a plan before I shared the news publicly," Roiland says. "But since then, I've had someone DM me saying, 'Wow, my son's eye has been moving weird, maybe I should get him checked.' "

She continues: "It's very emotional to share my story. When I had the baby, I wanted to be able to move on. Now, everyone will know the story, and we can update with news as we get it, if we feel we need to."

Bayouth concurs with his wife, telling PEOPLE: "If there's anything we've learned from including Ryder in social media, it's that people are very inspired by her. When Amy shoots videos with her and showcases her personality, there have been overwhelmingly positive reactions with people inspired by this little girl. This news can feel soul-crushing, but it doesn't have to be."

As for Ryder, she's maintaining the same innocent, childlike disposition of any 4-year old.

"After every appointment," Roiland says, "Ryder tells the nurse, 'Thank you for healing me.' "

The family has set up a fundraiser in honor of Ryder, with all proceeds going to Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

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