Shayden was visiting his grandparents when he decided to visit a neighbor to see if they had any children his age. Unfortunately, they didn’t.
But Brennan Ray, who shared the doorbell video on TikTok, informed the 11-year-old there were children his age next door.
“Well, they’re not my friends anymore because they’re bullies to me,” Shayden replied.
Since Ray shared the clip on TikTok it’s been viewed nearly 70 million times.
Shayden’s mother, Krishna Patterson, said her son has also received a massive boost in his confidence.
“He flaps his arms and makes noises that a lot of people have made fun of him, so he told me, ‘I just deal with the pain of holding it in, so I don’t get made fun of because of it,’ and that hurt, that broke my heart,” she said.
“What my life was like before was kids were manipulating me and telling me they would be my friend, but when they would ask me to do something horrible, I don’t feel like they’re actually my friend,” Shayden added.
After sharing his doorbell camera footage to TikTok, Ray set up a GoFundMe that raised nearly $40,000 for Shayden. The boy’s
“It just takes one person, especially if you’re a popular kid, people look up to you, if you can be the one to stand out and help somebody else, set that trend, make that the trend to be set to not be a bully,” Ray said.