Librarian handles online trolls about his voice and work with utmost grace and empathy

A library is a place that's close to people's hearts, not just for the fountain of knowledge it offers but also for the soulful connection one has to it. Especially for ardent readers who love peace and solitude, the library feels like a shrine and librarians have a big part to play in it. One such amazing librarian is turning heads on the internet with his wholesome reaction to being trolled on X (formerly Twitter). Mychal Threets—who goes by @mychal3ts on TikTok—about his unfortunate experience and the way he handled it with maturity and empathy impressed thousands of people.

33-year-old Threets is a superfan of books and libraries. Working as a supervising librarian at the Fairfield Civic Center Library in Solano County, California, Threets has been quite popular on social media for his cheerful videos about his librarian life and books, per The Washington Post. Full of vim and vigor, he loves to dress up in colorful clothing and share book reviews and mental health messages on TikTok. One such video of his was shared on X by Josh Lekach, @joshlekach, captioned, "People are getting weirder" and it gained over 43M views. The thread and comments that followed the viral post were full of utterly insensitive remarks pointing to Threets making fun of his voice and mannerisms.

Threets was notified by his friends and family about this insulting post and he decided to respond to it. Those comments were the "cruelest things he'd ever heard" and he felt that it was awful for them to comment about his demeanor and about how he retells wonderful library stories. Threets mentioned that he wouldn't recommend people see the hurtful comments. He pointed out that some people defended him, saying that he was autistic but he confirmed that he wasn't an autistic person. "I think autistic people are some of the coolest on the planet. I love conversations with my autistic library friends," he said.

What really concerned Threets was how unfair it was to hurt someone's personality online. "Sometimes people have their worst day and they are struggling in life and what that results in is they say very mean, cruel things about others," said Threets and emphasized that that behavior was "not okay." However, Threets wanted his supporters to remember that such meanness and cruelty were a reflection of how those commenters felt about themselves. "I hope those people have a better day tomorrow. I hope they experience kindness and joy. I hope they remember they still belong at the library," said the kind librarian and addressed the person who trolled him by saying, "I hope you are doing okay."

Threets thanked the people who wanted him to have a 'mental health check' before he became aware of that thread. Over 26,000 comments poured in and people rallied around the kind-hearted librarian and showered him with love and appreciation. "Mychal I'm so sorry you had to experience that, but you addressed the situation without being rude back and that makes you very amazing," wrote @the_grizzler2. "Mychal, you are a much-needed beacon of light to the youth and the world in general. I appreciate you so much, what you do is beautiful," commented @jasongarnr. "I suspect that people like that had their lights dimmed by others, felt forced to assimilate rather than grow their genuine selves," commented @amesjai.