‘Emotional Support Monster’ Gilly with Weaver family friends.Photo:Courtesy Alison Weaver
Courtesy Alison Weaver
Alison Weaver takes her “emotional support monster” everywhere she goes, with the goal of bringing joy and comfort to others.
“He became an emotional support monster for everyone, for our family, and then my friends," she says. “Everybody just fell in love with him.”
It all started a few years ago Weaver, now 47, was having a hard day and asked her son if she could hug his stuffed monster, Gilly.
“I just really needed to hug him,” Weaver, 47, recalls. And he made her feel better. So she started taking the stuffed monster to work with her at a theme park. If a coworker was having a bad day, they hugged the monster. Soon, she bought duplicates for all her friends and family.
Eventually her two children convinced her to start aYouTube channeldocumenting all of Gilly’s adventures and good deeds.
‘Emotional Support Monster’ Gilly.Courtesy Alison Weaver
“My son was like, ‘Everybody needs to know Gilly because he makes everybody so happy,’ ” she recalls. “I was like, ‘All right, but I’m going to stop this if it’s just getting ridiculous.’ ”
His channel now has nearly 500 subscribers.
“He is making other people happy every day,” she says. “It’s amazing. The thing that makes me the happiest is the joy that he brings to people, not just to my family and friends, but to complete strangers."
Gilly is also a kindness ambassador for theYellow Band Project— an organization that promotes the doing of good deeds in memory of a young boy who did the same — and hands out kindness bracelets with Weaver’s help.
“Wherever we go, if we think someone needs a smile, then Gilly gives them a bracelet,” she says. “I know that Gilly is bringing happiness to everyone.”
Alison Weaver and Gilly.Courtesy Alison Weaver
Since going public with Gilly’s goodness, Weaver has received an overwhelming response from viewers and fans.
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“People have told me that they have suffered from depression, and Gilly is the only thing that makes them smile. It makes me cry thinking about it, because all I wanted was to make other people feel as happy as we did," she says.
Her goal is to continue spreading the joy Gilly brings her family.
“It amazes me every day how many people love him,” she says. “It’s complete craziness, but it’s really fun.”
source: people.com
