10-Year-Old Girl Makes Bracelets To Remind People to “Be Nice”

There are plenty of things for Americans to be upset and divided about these days, from police-involved shootings to the national political conventions unfolding last week and currently. But alongside these complex issues, one little girl is trying to remind us that being nice doesn’t have to be complicated.

It can be as simple as giving someone a bracelet.

10-year-old Leah Nelson, from West Sacramento, California, has always been exceptionally kind: Her father told ABC10 that for her eighth birthday she organized a food drive instead of asking for presents. Now, it seems she wants to do good deeds all year round and hopes others will do the same.

Earlier this month, Nelson launched her new project, Becuz I Care. Her goal was simple: to make Rainbow Loom bracelets and send them out to people, as reminders to be kind to others. The catch? There is none.

“You don’t have to buy anything,” Nelson told Today. “Just, whenever you do something kind, you pass it on, and you ask them to pay it forward as well by passing on the bracelet when they do something kind for someone else.”

In other words, instead of sharing cat videos, Nelson wants to make kindness go viral. And people have been answering her call. She has made over a thousand bracelets, and has been mailing them all the way to New Zealand.

After the shocking deaths of five police officers in Dallas, Nelson, whose mother works for the West Sacramento Police Department, was moved to attach a message to the bracelets, as further motivation for people to do good deeds and spread the word, even in these heated times. The message explains the goal of Becuz I Care, and offers suggestions of small kindnesses, such as “buy their coffee at Starbucks, or pay them a compliment.”

“She’s aware that many people are angry, hurt and upset on both sides” her father told Today, referring to the tensions between police forces and minorities. “Her answer was simple: People should just be nice.”

Nelson says all she wants is for people to help make the world a better place.

“I don’t want to live in a world with a lot of issues when I grow up, because we’re the next generation, and the world needs to be a good place, not bad,” she told ABC10.

If the rest of Nelson’s generation is anything like her, we can feel optimistic about the future.