Little Boy Thinks He Has No Friends, but He Actually Has 102,000 (and Counting)

By the time we finish writing this story, 10-year-old Colin will probably have over 125,000 friends. In the few hours since we found out about him, he gained 30,000. When his birthday comes around on March 9th, he will likely have a million.

A week ago though, he had none.

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ellen

Colin, a little boy in Michigan, suffers from a sensory processing disorder and another disorder similar to autism and Asperger syndrome reports WoodTV.com. Consequently, he's had trouble socializing at school. With his 11th birthday approaching, Colin told his mother Jennifer he didn't want to have a birthday party.

"Mom, who am I going to invite? I don't have any friends,'" Jennifer recalls.

In lieu of an actual fete, Jennifer decided to throw Colin a surprise party on Facebook. She created a page for him - "Happy Birthday Colin" - and recruited a few friends to help her start generating messages for her son. She planned to reveal it all to him on his big day. The devoted mom also posted a mailing address on the page in case people wanted to send cards.

At first, the response trickled in... a few weeks ago, Jennifer found herself ecstatic when they had a hundred likes.

"Holy cow! We're at 101 likes! I could cry, Colin will feel so loved! Keep sharing and posting, we love you all!" She wrote on the page.

Pretty soon, the entire world caught on. Currently, Happy Birthday Colin is gaining thousands of likes each minute, and similarly, the family's post office box is overflowing. People from Scotland, Switzerland and other countries are sharing their own messages of struggling to find friends and acceptance, and offering positive greetings.

Along the way, Jennifer updates the audience with photos, videos and stories about Colin's journey.

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ellen

On Friday, she wrote, "Colin was telling me all the people from countries all over the world that he has "met" via friend codes on his DS, and I was dying to tell him about the thousands of people all over the world that know his name because of this page, but we have a month to go yet till his birthday, so I kept it in. It was difficult though. Lol"

Yes, it's all still a secret, a huge surprise waiting for Colin. Soon, he will learn he doesn't have "no friends," but an army of people behind him, toasting in his honor... wherever he goes!