Logan Fairbanks may be a child, but he has shown maturity that far exceeds his 11 years of age.
Logan is the star of viral YouTube videos that involve his dad, Josh Fairbanks, playing lighthearted pranks on him. These videos have been seen millions of times around the world, and have brought joy and laughter to viewers.
However, some individuals on the Internet have used the comments section of Logan’s videos to spread hate and hostility, making fun of Logan’s size and writing that the videos are “funny cuz he’s fat.”
But Logan was undaunted. He asked his dad to let him make a video taking on the mean commenters, but was told that he couldn’t.
“In the past 15, 16 years of being online, I knew that no matter what you post, there’s gonna be people who anonymously say things because they can,” Josh told TODAY.com in a phone interview. He originally did not want Logan to see the more hateful comments that had been left on the clips.
“I knew that he had only seen the surface of what was out there,” he said. “I wasn’t sure that I could handle watching him read those comments.”
When Logan saw other YouTube stars he admires also fall victim to hateful comments online, he redoubled his efforts to make a response video.
“It was something he had never seen done,” Josh said. “He thought he could maybe make a difference for them and make other people be stronger.”
After agreeing to Logan’s request, his dad had the unfortunate task of sorting through the awful comments about his son to find ones that he could read on camera. Though he had a desire to shield Logan from some of the things that were said, he did not hold back.
“I knew that he wanted to make an impact and he wanted to do something good,” his father said. “And the only way to actually do that good was to be actually true to what he wanted to do and pull the worst of the worst.”
In the heartbreaking video. Logan looks right into the camera, confronting his commenters, while reading comments like “squeal, piggy, squeal” and “I hope that he dies.”
The whole time, though, he keeps his cool. And after finishing and taking a moment to gather himself, Logan is able to calmly deliver his anti-bullying message.
“I hope that people don’t bully other people anymore. I hope that this helps,” he said. “People that have been bullied: Don’t let these words affect you.”
Since the video went up on Tuesday, Logan's video has been viewed more than 500,000 times and has received support from people around the world, from England to Israel.
And for Logan's father, the answer is clear.
“When people say those things, it doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong with you," Josh said. "There’s something wrong with them.”