A 10-year-old boy has received messages of support from around the world after his mom revealed how bullies had left him in tears over his Halloween costume.
Taking to Facebook prior to her son's school Halloween party, mom Jill Struckman revealed that young Evan had chosen to go as Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark from the Iron Man and Avengers movies.
The 45-year-old Missouri mom wrote: "I hope his school is ready for this guy. He only answers to 'Tony' or 'Mr. Stark'."
In the proud mom's post, she shared several photos of Evan looking every bit the billionaire playboy - complete with waistcoat, beard, and Stark's snazzy high-tech glasses.
And before we continue, I just want to say that Evan looked AWESOME! As a fan of the MCU movies, he's a spot-on Tony Stark:
However, in a heartbreaking follow-up post, mom Jill revealed that just "20 minutes" after Evan had left home for the schoolbus, she received a call from her son.
"Apparently some kids on the bus (who weren’t even wearing costumes) told him he looked stupid. Evan got to school and immediately went to the bathroom and washed his face," she wrote. "When he called he was crying and soooo hurt that He didn’t even want to stay for his party.
"Here’s what my little Tony Stark looks like now. We both have swollen eyes from crying and are on our way to try to find ice cream."
Alongside a photo of her upset son, she added: "Kids need to understand that WORDS hurt."
Jill's post quickly went viral on the social media platform, and Evan was flooded with compliments from strangers. As of this writing, the post has received over 260,000 shares and more than 1,200 comments.
One support commented: "What a lucky Mom you are, riding with Tony Stark!! Evan, don't let those self-conscious Bullies get into your head. Bullies are insecure people who are not satisfied with themselves. You are the Best!!"
A second added: "Tell him they were just jealous because he looked so much better than they did!"
And a third wrote: "Well as Tony did, he will rise above them all and they’ll all feel sh***y about themselves for treating this little dude as such."
After going viral, Jill provided an update and revealed that Evan decided that he did want to go to the party. She wrote:
"If you've seen my posts this morning you know what a roller coaster it has been... I have an update that I would like to share... After going to Starbucks and talking through his feelings, Evan decided he didn’t want to miss his school party!!! So we went home redid his AWESOME makeup and matched right back into school!
"He ended up getting that ride he wanted after all. He also learned some valuable lessons today."
She added, "thanks for all the sweet words" and "I do appreciate you all".
Jill said that Evan never wants to make anybody feel the way he did, and that he "let other people’s opinions weigh so heavily on him".
Evan, you looked like a true superhero!