A 13-year-old boy who was mocked by pupils at his new school for sharing his love of books ended up receiving support from authors, celebrities and hundreds of thousands of people online.

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Back in March 2020, Callum Manning’s book review Instagram account became an unexpected internet sensation after his older sister revealed the abuse he had faced over it.

Callum, from South Shields, had recently started a new school and created the account to review books he had been reading.

His first review was posted on February 23 and covered Stephen King’s The Shining.

“This book was the first book I read in 1 day,” he wrote.

But after fellow pupils discovered his account, Callum’s passion for reading became the subject of a group chat.

According to his family, the teenager was added to the chat so he could see the negative comments being made about him before being removed and left unable to respond.

Some of the messages reportedly described the “book-obsessed” teenager as “a sad weirdo”.

His older sister, Ellis Landreth, then decided to share what had happened on Twitter.

“Can’t believe how awful kids are,” she wrote.

“Kids in his new school have seen it and have created a group chat calling him a creep slagging him off about it and added him to it so he could see,” she added alongside a screenshot of Callum’s account.

Ellis hadn’t expected the post to travel far.

“All I was expecting was a few of my followers to show him some encouragement and support, and that he wasn’t ‘weird’ or ‘sad’ for preferring to read,” she told CNN.

Instead, the internet completely changed the story.

Callum went from having just 39 followers to tens of thousands in an extraordinary surge of support.

“Yesterday I had 39 followers, now I have more than 85,000 – it’s bizarre, but nice to know that people care,” he said at the time, per BBC News.

Within days, reports placed his follower count at more than 230,000, while Callum was also inundated with around 15,000 direct messages.

“He’s absolutely overwhelmed,” Ellis said. “He can’t even get through all his DMs. He has around 15,000.”

More than six years later, as of July 2026, the Instagram account appears to have been closed down. Its profile is seemingly no longer active, although the account sits on 172,000 followers.

The huge response in 2020 went far beyond people simply hitting the follow button.

Waterstones in Gateshead offered Callum a free book, writing: “We’re so sad to hear this! 🙁 Talking about books is a great way to make friends and discover books you might never have otherwise read! Please tell your brother to keep up with the reviews!”

Authors also rallied around him.

Caroline Kepnes, Callum’s favourite writer, was among those who offered encouragement, while Malorie Blackman shared his story on social media.

English novelist Matt Haig sent Callum books and urged people to support his account.

“Hey let’s all follow Cals Book Account on Instagram and show him some support.”

Haig said the story had “instantly struck a chord” with him, explaining that he remembered “being 13 and hiding my love of books from some of the lads at school who mocked you for it”.

He added: “I think this is about the best and worst of the internet. Yes there are always going to be cyber-bullies but there are moments like this who swamp out that bullying with kindness.”

Callum also received private messages from celebrities, including stars of Geordie Shore, and was reportedly invited to visit Instagram’s head office.

The support even arrived from overseas.

“We even got a ‘good luck’ message from a woman in Iraq,” Callum’s mother, Carla Landreth, said.

Carla said her son had initially been “devastated” by the messages in the group chat, particularly because he could see the abuse but had been blocked from replying.

But the wave of encouragement that followed transformed the situation.

“It has made him feel so good, and sends out a really strong, anti-bullying message – a case of who’s getting the last laugh now.”

She added: “It’s just bonkers but in a really good way, that we’ve been able to turn a negative into a positive.”

Ellis also highlighted the lasting impact seemingly small incidents can have on young people.

“She’s so happy people are spreading positive messages about these issues. No matter how small some things seem, they can stick with kids forever.”

For Callum, the sudden attention was difficult to process.

He described the reaction simply as “just amazing, overwhelming”.

What began as a teenager posting book reviews and sharing something he genuinely enjoyed became one of those rare internet stories where a pile-on was met by a far bigger response.

The pupils who mocked Callum may have wanted him to feel embarrassed about reading.

Instead, hundreds of thousands of people found his account.

Featured image credit: Erik Mclean / Pexels / Cals_Book_Account / Instagram