Shayden Walker is 12 years old, lives in Amarillo, Texas, and on a Tuesday in July did something that was incredibly hard for him: he knocked on his neighbor Brennan Ray’s door and confessed, ‘I really need some friends.’ 🥺
When Brennan suggested playing with the kids next door, Shayden lowered his gaze: those same kids were the ones who bullied him. But when he learned that Brennan had a two-year-old baby, his face changed completely. He loves babies, he said, because he had a little sister that age and misses her.
Brennan recorded everything with his security camera and uploaded it to TikTok. The video exploded: more than 60 million views and hundreds of children recording themselves to offer him their friendship. His mom, Krishna Patterson, later said that Shayden has autism, ADHD, and ODD, and that he hides his stimming so they won’t make fun of him. In two days, a fundraiser for the family surpassed $37,000, and Shayden has already decided to donate a good part of it to other children who are going through the same thing. 💙