When Celebrities Came Together to wish a Bullied Child #WATWB

It began with a heartbreaking series of tweets by Christopher, a father to a young boy.

"Strange request. Anyone know anyone famous/well known who could send Ollie a positive/9th birthday message. The bully keeps saying to him that everything O has, he has bigger/better/more often. O excited for his birthday but keeps being told it won't be as good as his own.
I would be so grateful and I appreciate it is an odd request. Just would love someone to tell him he does mean something & bullying is not."

His son was being bullied and ill-treated even on the eve of his 9th birthday. He hoped anyone would be able to find anyone just 'well known' also to wish his son to cheer him up on his birthday.

He got his wish with a few 'moderately well known' blokes and lasses deciding to wish Ollie and cheer him up, letting him know they were on his side.

So who all came in that list of wishers, you ask? Meh. Nobody great. Just:

1. Talk show host and legend Ellen Degeneres.
2. The Terminator himself Arnold Schwarzenegger
3. Wolverine Hugh Jackman
4. Gladiator Russell Crowe
5. Singer Nicole Scherzinger
6. Astronaut Chris Hadfield 
7. Astronaut Tim Peake
8. English cricketer Graeme Swann
9. British Olympic racewalker Tom Bosworth
10. British Olympic medalist Dame Jessica Ennis Hill
11. Simpsons cartoonist Eric Keyes
12. American activist Monica Lewinsky
13. Manchester City football club
14. Manchester United football club
15. Arsenal football club
16. The English national football club

 So ya, as I said, meh. Nobody great.

Jokes aside, it was an absolutely lovely gesture from the stars and must have felt so great for the young child. His mom, Natalie would later thank everyone for their kindness.

"Hi, I'm Ollie's mum (married to Chris). I don't 'tweet' and always go on at him for spending too much time on Twitter!! However, this time I want to say, from the bottom of my heart 'Thank You' so much. You really don't know what this means, Natalie xx"

I wanted to share this lovely story for two reasons and you, the reader, are a part of the second.

The first reason is that for me, twitter is nowadays one of most toxic social media platforms available (especially in India) with abusive trolls and hate-filled tweets forming the bulk of comments for anyone trying to raise a point. Celebrities who stand up for a cause actually end up getting threats of rape, violence and murder.
And yet, I have hope. Because this is the same world where people of different beliefs, races and religions all got together on Twitter and let a small boy know that they stood by his side and that bullying is not okay. We will get there, India. We just need to keep standing up for our own Ollies who are victims of abuse and who wrongfully believe that nobody cares for them.






The second point is far more positive. If I am not mistaken, Ollie celebrates his birthday on the 5th of July. So I am hoping you can find it in yourself to spare a moment to write a birthday wish for the young lad in the comments section (the plan being to share this post with his father next week).

Sure, you and I are not Wolverine or Ellen but you know what, I think, he wouldn't mind it at all.
Who knows, if we are lucky, we will get cake too!

P.S. Do you want some hints on how to write birthday wishes to Ollie? Here are some people who tried it in 2017.

Happy birthday, Ollie! Remember, anyone who tells you that you aren't good enough is just plain wrong. #BeKind

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) June 30, 2017

Tell Ollie happy birthday and I hope I can meet him in September to celebrate! pic.twitter.com/pS6RkB1MDT

— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) June 30, 2017

Happy 9th birthday, Ollie! pic.twitter.com/vjDGha6XtM

— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) June 30, 2017

Hope your 9th birthday is out of this world Ollie. Just remember - a bully is a person too scared to do the right thing. Aim high dude! 🚀

— Tim Peake (@astro_timpeake) June 29, 2017

Hey Ollie, Happy Birthday buddy! I just celebrated mine too! Maybe you and your dad would wanna come hang out at XF later this year? xo

— Nicole Scherzinger (@NicoleScherzy) June 30, 2017

Happy Birthday Ollie from a guy on @TheSimpsons who's not quite famous but draws a kid who is =) I hope you have an AWESOME day! pic.twitter.com/f7itI4XdfW

— Eric Keyes (@monkeyes) June 29, 2017

Hey Ollie, heard it was your birthday. 9 years old eh? Congratulations, Happy Birthday !!

— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) June 29, 2017

happy birthday, ollie! 🎂we're rooting for you to have a gr8 day... + rooting for you always. hang in there! pic.twitter.com/EhG2HqGb2K

— Monica Lewinsky (@MonicaLewinsky) June 29, 2017

Happy 9th birthday Ollie from everyone @ManCity! 👍💪#mcfc

— Manchester City (@ManCity) June 29, 2017

Happy birthday, Ollie! 🎂

Fancy coming to see us in September? Let us know and we'll make it happen. 👍

— England (@England) June 29, 2017

Happy Birthday Ollie. Hope you have a great birthday. We've all been there with bullies, never let them win. Enjoy your day 🎂🎉

— Dame Jess Ennis-Hill (@J_Ennis) June 30, 2017

So once again, don't forget to wish Ollie a happy birthday in the comments section :)

Authors note:

This post is part of the We Are the World Blogfest, a monthly event to showcase stories of compassion. The hosts for this month are:  Shilpa Garg, Simon Falk, Mary J Giese, Dan Antion,  Damyanti Biswas.   

The idea is to spread positivity and light to counterbalance the negativity and darkness in social media. You can check their pages to find the list of feel-good stories written by bloggers from around the world.

This is also my take on the prompt “No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true.” – Cinderella set by WriteTribe for their Festival of Words June 2018.  

You can see entries by other bloggers for the prompts of Day 6 here.

My other entries for this festival are:

Have you tried Blue Tea? (Food)

In My Defense (Short Story)

10 people who failed in life... before becoming Legends (Inspirational)

The heart-warming story behind the TV show 'Speechless' (TV show)

Ocasio-Cortez' win is the victory a disillusioned world needed (Politics)

When Celebrities Came Together to wish a Bullied Child (Kindness)

Movies That Take Place Over 24 Hours (Fun Lists)