Little boy was bullied at school for his fascination with space—until NASA astronaut told him what he should do

Kids pick up on differences fast, and standing up for something you love can make you a target. A six-year-old boy came home from school one day and threw away all of his space-themed shirts covered in astronauts and planets that he used to love. His classmates had called them "stupid" and he decided he wasn’t going to wear them anymore. His sister, Meg, shared this incident on her TikTok @eggiemegg_, writing in the caption, "Now he will only wear 'cool' clothes like Nike and Underarmor. Kindergartners are brutal." The video caught the attention of over 39 million people, including Vanessa (@thevanessahernande), who saw the video and decided to get her father involved—who happens to be a NASA astronaut.

Her father, Jose Hernandez, conveyed a message to the boy. He began, "Hello, I'm astronaut Jose Hernandez, and I wanna tell you that you should still keep wearing your clothes that have space, rockets, and planets. Because I tell you, if I would have listened to my friends when I told them I wanted to be an astronaut, and they said it was a dumb idea, I would have never have gone been able to wear this flight suit and go up into space." Hernandez, who flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station for 14 days, knew exactly what it was like to have people doubt his dreams.

He continued, "It took me 12 attempts. NASA rejected me 11 times. But I never gave up. I just kept going forward, forward and forward." He concluded, "This is why you should not be afraid to wear your space theme clothes. You should be proud of them. And hopefully, if you study hard, I'll see you working at NASA with me." Many TikTok users jumped into the comments to praise Hernandez for encouraging the boy with his words. @dove noted, "A beautiful reminder to wear what you want and be yourself. Thank you, José!" @asifyoureblue quipped, "I absolutely love this! Thank you so much for doing this, sir. You're gonna make a difference to a lot of little kids who love space."

@readtofilth added, "I would literally cry if an astronaut sent me a video hyping me up." @heyitsem shared, "My son has wanted to be an astronaut since he was 2. His 5th birthday cake was the Falcon 9 Heavy! He’s space-obsessed. We love encouraging it." Even the comments on the original video were not short of encouraging. @californiasciencecenter wrote, "Space is awesome, and so are YOU, young scientist! Proudly wear those space shirts—we know a future astronaut when we see one!"

@kelliegerardi penned, "Get those shirts back (and get some cool space pajamas too!) I just flew to space, and now all my grown-up friends want space shirts, too." @desi.marie13 commented, "Petition for Nike to make an outer space shirt and mail one to this sweet boy." After seeing the astronaut’s response, Meg made a duet video, showing her brother watching Hernandez’s message. As the astronaut spoke, the boy was so happy listening to his words. Meg wrote in the caption how his brother felt after he watched the video, "He got a little silly, but he can't believe a real astronaut saw his video!! Afterward, he said, 'Okay maybe I'll wear my space shirts."

You can follow Vanessa (@thevanessahernandez) and Meg (@eggiemegg_) on TikTok for more lifestyle content.