NBA superstar Lebron James has more than 37 million followers on Instagram, so when @KingJames tagged 17-year-old Jaylen Arnold in one of his stories, Jaylen’s mission to help other students dealing with bullies gained a new audience.
“When we found out LeBron James was behind it, I was mind blown,” Arnold said.
Earlier this week, the NBA superstar shared a video of Jaylen talking about his anti-bullying message and then tagged the teen’s foundation, Jaylen's Challenge.
Jaylen’s mom, Robin Eckleberger, said the moment James posted it Monday night, they started getting messages.
“We got over 200 direct messages and about 80 or 90 comments,” she said.
The post alone boosted Jaylen’s followers on Instagram by more than 2,000.
“It was very much a blessing because so many people found out about Jaylen’s Challenge and heard about anti-bullying in a light that they don’t normally pay attention to,” Jaylen said.
An opportunity to share a message near and dear to so many.
“It’s important. If it’s one more life, one more child, one more person, it makes all the difference," said Eckelberger.
“We’ve gotten a lot of messages from people mentioning they were bullied,” Jaylen said. “Some people told us they used to bully people and how they feel terrible about what they’ve done. They’ve turned over a new leaf, so that story is always amazing because that’s the goal.”
This is not Jaylen’s first encounter with celebrities. He’s been on "The Ellen Show" and in People magazine, he’s had his own Nickelodeon show, and he was recently awarded the Princess Diana Legacy award.
His mom says they don’t contact the celebrities, she says somehow people hear about Jaden‘s message and reach out. She says are all blessings they’re grateful for.
If you’d like to learn more about Jaylen’s Challenge click here: http://www.jaylenschallenge.org/
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