It's easy to forget that a small random act of kindness can make our day infinitely better.
But one teenage boy was ready to remind his neighbors of that message, through a doorbell camera recording, of all places.
And the neighbor who received that message, Ashely Mann, decided to share the message with the rest of the world on her TikTok channel, @ashleyfayeann.
The teen, since identified as Jacksen, was hanging out with his friends, who decided to play "Ding Dong Ditch" throughout the neighborhood. Not interested in participating, Jacksen walked ahead of the group, and when he noticed a doorbell camera on one of the houses he was passing, he decided to leave a positive message.
Jacksen approached the camera and said:
"If you can see me, then you matter, alright?"
"There’s always gonna be somebody that cares about you, and you’re a good person. No matter what people say, you matter."
While leaving his message, Jacksen's friends caught up with him, and one of them rang the doorbell while he was still talking.
Jacksen watched them leave and then resumed his message:
“Ignore them, they’re losers. They’re ‘ding-dong ditching’ you. I’m just trying to say something nice. Like I don’t know what they’re doing, they’re running away and stuff."
"I’m just trying to say that you matter man, or girl, whoever you are you matter to someone. Just keep that in mind, don’t forget that.”
Mann was touched by the message and shared it as a video on TikTok, which you can watch here:
The video quickly garnered 5.2 million views and over 850 thousand likes.
Fellow TikTokers were touched by the message.
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Others were impressed by the way Jacksen was clearly being raised, based on his message.
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Because of the attention the video received, Mann and Jacksen's family decided to start a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for mental health treatment and research.
On the campaign, Mann explained:
"My name is Ashley. Back on July 12th, I uploaded a video from my doorbell camera to TikTok. Jacksen had decided to leave a very positive and uplifting message."
"I decided to share it with everyone because more people needed to see and hear it, especially those who could be struggling. Little did I know it was going to go viral!"
"Jacksen’s family and I decided to do something with this and create this fundraiser to hopefully raise some money to donate to a local Mental Health resource in our community."
Though the campaign has only raised 480 dollars so far, that can be life-changing money for some projects and families, and it's clear that Jacksen's message was reaching many through social media.
@kileywrestling/Bluesky
