The world needs more people like Mychal Threets. The librarian made a name for himself on TikTok, his love for books, reading and helping others hitting all the right notes for his nearly 1 million followers. But, like most things these days, there is always someone waiting to break all that is nice.
Bullies quickly started posting Mychal’s videos on X (formerly Twitter), where they would say horrible things about his mental health, that he wasn’t a safe person to watch, and it just kept happening. Mychal, with saint-like patience, responded with kindness, and urged his followers to not harass anyone on his behalf. When some of the bullies apologized, Mychal would easily accept it.
Photo courtesy of Mychal Threets
But then he did something no one saw coming. Mychal resigned from his job at the Fairfield Civic Center Library. He said that it wasn’t because the trolls had won, but because prioritizing his mental health, and making sure he continued to love the library, stepping down was his only option.
It’s been so difficult seeing and hearing about all of that on social media over the last several months.”
“It hurts very badly to your soul to be bullied in person or on the internet,” Mychal said. “I was raised by my library, so I wouldn’t just make a decision to leave because of cyberbullying. I’m honored to have this platform to highlight library workers and literacy, it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do, but my mental health honestly just started to suffer.”
But this change in employment status has landed Mychal in a unique position. His fans had been petitioning PBS Kids to hire him as the new host of “Reading Rainbow,” a popular show that ran for nearly 20 years and is still loved today. And while there is no news on the petition, it did catch the attention of PBS Kids.
Mychal recently announced that he would be working with PBS Kids as their ‘resident librarian’, as well as starring in a short video alongside one of PBS Kids’ most famous cartoon characters. “We’re so excited about all the library joy and book joy you’re going to share!”, officials at PBS Kids said. The goal, they said, would bring educational content that they see benefiting children and families. Mychal’s short features the title character from the animated series “Arthur”.
Arthur from the PBS Kids show, “Arthur.” Photo by PBS
“One of Arthur’s theme songs is ‘Having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card,’” Carol Greenwald, senior executive producer on “Arthur”. “We just really felt like Mychal embodied that in himself and his message, so we were thrilled to work with him on this.”
And, of course, the fact that he has a tattoo of Arthur’s library card also made him dear to our hearts. It all seemed like a natural connection.”
For Threets, the moment is not only a dream come true, but one that surpasses anything his younger self could’ve ever imagined. “Baby Mychal would never think this would have happened,” he said. “People have been asking me if I ever thought it would happen, like, by me working in the library, and the answer is not at all. That’s not why I joined the library.
It wasn’t like, ‘This is how I’m gonna get to meet my good friend Arthur.’ I just wanted to be amongst the people, amongst my community, helping them to find books, helping them to remember that they belong in their local library.” To read our previous article on Mychal, click here. Watch below to see “Mychal the Librarian Meets Arthur”.
Sources: AWN | Rolling Stones | Blavity
