Utah student using a T-shirt and a message to connect people impacted by suicide

SALEM — A Salem student is connecting with other teens who've been impacted by anxiety, depression and suicide — with a T-shirt.

Jackson Eyre is a TikTokker whose videos might give his 423,000 followers the impression that his life is nothing but dancing, goofing around and hanging out with pretty girls.

However, just a few years ago, when the college freshman was in junior high school, he was having a tough time.

"(Jackson would) say, 'You know, everyone's nice to me at school, but no one wants to hang out with me on the weekends and I just feel like I don't have any friends,'" said Tancy Eyre, Jackson's mom. "'I just feel like I'm so alone.'"

Meanwhile, his sister, Jane Eyre, was dealing with anxiety and depression.

"She just really withdrew from everybody. And she'd stay in her room a lot," Tancy Eyre said.

Jane got help, and her mom says she is doing much better.

When Jackson Eyre was 14, though, his good friend and cousin, Kellan Eyre, died by suicide.

"I went outside and I laid on the grass and I looked in the stars and said 'Kellan, I'm sorry. I wish I could have said something, I could have done something,'" Eyre recalled.

To perhaps make up for what he thought he might have said or done, Eyre began reaching out to people at school – giving compliments to students he didn't know but who looked like they could use it.

"It felt like I had to," he said.

"(Jackson has) really just kind of been on a mission to make others happy," his mom said.

Eyre also used a Sharpie to write a message on a blank T-shirt: "The world's a better place with you in it." He eventually wore that shirt to school and then had it properly printed at a relative's print shop, with plans to sell it. He said a portion of the proceeds will go to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

He wore it in his TikTok videos and followers, especially men, took notice.

"You think you gotta be this tough kid. If you're on the football team, you can't be soft, you can't shed a tear. Guys think they have to be too strong to cry or show emotion," Eyre said. "As simple as (the message) sounds, it's necessary that we hear that again."

Pretty soon, Eyre was selling the shirt across the country and getting messages of support.

One person wrote, "I've struggled with depression and suicide multiple times, but I've never really opened up about it," and "I think your shirt will let me express myself."

A father and son who'd lost a son and brother to suicide even asked if they could have the message image tattooed on their wrists, which they did.

"There's so much more to life with you here, and never be afraid to be yourself," Eyre said. "You know, it's OK to try to fit in but it's also OK to just be you. The world really is a better place with all of us in it. All of us, that's what makes here, here."

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