Stand Up to Bullying with Jaylen

Today I want to tell you about one amazing kid and his mission to save the world.

Save the world?  Really?  Yes.  Jaylen Arnold is a superhero and he is going to save the world, defeating one bully at a time.

You may remember learning a little bit about Jaylen, who is one of our Global Game Changer superheroes.  He is just an ordinary boy, except that he is far from ordinary.  Jaylen suffers from Tourettes, OCD, and Aspergers.  He jokes that he’s an alphabet kid.

Now some kids and even some adults around Jaylen haven’t been so nice about some of the things that make him a special individual.  They haven’t understood his tics, and they’ve made fun of him.  They tried to scare him or make him feel like he was less of a person.  But Jaylen is more than they can imagine.  He is super.

And what do super kids do?  They fight with their hearts.  Jaylen did just that.  He stood up for himself and for all kids and started an organization called Jaylen’s Challenge, which combats bullying.  He says:

My mom says I’m a kind and loving boy. My dad says I’m really intelligent. IQ test scores say I’m 3 points below genius. But I say, God made me really special and I know that if I try super duper hard, I can do anything I want to do. One day, I’m going to be on the Disney Channel & You Tube educating people about teasing and bullying! And one day, Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and The Jonas Brothers will be wearing my armband to help stop bullying!

And Jaylen has gone and done at least some of that.  You should check out his YouTube
channel!  Here’s one of my favorite videos:

Jaylen’s Challenge PSA

Jaylen reminds us all that bullying is not to be tolerated among children or among parents.  He asks kids to stand up to bullies, because it’s much easier to work together.  Somehow, I don’t think Jaylen would mind if a few Mamas stood up, too.