YouTuber MrBeast has won me over with this NJ act of kid kindness

YouTuber MrBeast has won me over with this New Jersey act of kid kindness

I generally have no love for “influencers” or “YouTubers” and the like. I mean, how self-absorbed does it come off to carry the label of influencer? These don’t seem like serious broadcasters to me who worked hard to hone their craft.

Example: MrBeast has gained fame by doing things like sitting in fast swerving cars trying to not spill liquid out of an open pitcher. Okayyyyyyy.

As vapid as I find this stuff, others don’t. MrBeast, whose real name is James Stephen Donaldson, has a record breaking 510 million subscribers and is worth, somehow, $2.6 billion.

But it’s not all idiocy. Okay, most of it is. But he’s won over a small bit of my cynical heart by helping children. The latest is he lined up 100 kids outside a Toys "R" Us at American Dream Mall and let them grab whatever they wanted for free, according to NJ.com.

These weren’t just any kids.

These were kids with cancer.

And it’s not the first time he’s done stuff like that, so how can I not like him? Last fall he partnered with Make-A-Wish to host a Disney World Halloween bash for 40 kids with cancer. In May, the same organization helped him send a 4-year-old cancer patient to Disney World with his family.

So OK, OK, I have to rethink this whole thing. If you help a sick child, I may even be your next subscriber.

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