Iowa: Teen Uses Twitter For Good

Marion, Iowa teenager Matt Shankles was one of many teenagers across the country subjected to bullying in school and online. He even resorted to cutting himself and said he "hated myself more than I hate war," according to the Marion Patch. That all changed when he decided to use the bullies' own tool to make others feel good.

 

A Linn-Mar High School student created an anonymous Twitter handle to blast students and publicly shame them. To counter, Shankles created @linn_mar_love to tweet words of kindness to other students. Using the account, he sends messages to students like, "There must be something in the water at Linn-Mar. Everyone is so talented and beautiful. Better start drinking it. ;)" or "Keep your chin up. You're too important to be ashamed." 

 

He even started to counteract the bullying account by reaching out to the recipients of the harmful tweets. The original bullying account has since been deleted.