Weird Enough Productions

Tony Weaver, Jr. is an award winning activist, writer, and educator creating diverse stories that make young people feel seen and valued. After seeing the impact that media stereotypes had on students in his community, Tony embarked on a journey to create new media narratives that would challenge the status quo. What started as a school project became a national platform that’s landed him on the Ted Stage,The Forbes 30 Under 30, and before the age of 25. He’s the CEO of Weird Enough Productions, where he developed a program that uses comics and superheroes for social emotional learning, literacy, and antiracism in schools.  Since its inception, he’s impacted over 400,000 students around the US, was named a History Shaker by Coca Cola,  a Global Barrier Breaker by Marriott International, and awarded the Aspire Award from AT&T. 

Racial Injustice and Education Inequality have created a mental health crisis for minority students in The US. Due to systemic bias both inside and outside of the classroom, Black and Latino students are falling behind in academic competencies like literacy, and increasing in negative health outcomes like depression, anxiety, and suicide. At Weird Enough, I’ve developed a program that uses superheroes and comic books to improve student literacy and mental health. With diverse comics, my project shows students images of heroes that look like them changing the world in a positive way while improving their literacy levels. Those comics are combined with educational curricula that improve student self-esteem,  decode bias, and helps students identify their personal strengths to become heroes in their communities. My project elevates humanity by ensuring Black and Latino youth don’t get left behind, and equipping them with the tools needed to be changemakers in their communities. 

The US Education System is in the middle of a youth mental health crisis. According to a Harvard Medical study, a record amount of students lost their lives due to suicide in the last year. Like Nigel Shelby, a 15-year-old who ended his life after homophobic bullying. Hailley Nailor, who jumped five stories to her death after “friends” encouraged her to end her life on Snapchat. Or Seven Bridges, a 10-year-old who hung himself after experiencing bullying. According to The American Medical Association, teen suicide rates are at a 20 year high. As COVID-19 forces schools around the country close their doors, millions of students have been separated from their friends and support systems and greeted with academic uncertainty just to watch people around the world get sick and die. Black students  are faced with a grimmer reality, where they’ve been quarantined only to watch people that look like them being killed, assaulted, and brutalized by police. The education system has not evolved to address the 21st Century emotional needs of students, or the direct mental stress education inequality causes. As a result, our schools are not only failing young people, they’re actively perpetuating harm that could be deadly. 

Get Media L.I.T. is an educational program  that uses superheroes and  comic books for social emotional learning and  literacy in schools. It combines diverse comic books that encourage students to be heroes with curricula that fosters greater self esteem, social responsibility, and agency. L.I.T. is an acronym for the programs three lesson categories:  Learn, Inquire, and Transform. “Learn” lessons give students resources for how to tend to their own mental health. Tips for how to deal with things like bullying, social media insecurities, or self doubt. “Inquire” lessons directly focus on shifting student attitudes and beliefs, helping them shed bias and better understand each other. Finally, “Transform” lessons empower students to be heroes in their communities using their unique personal strengths. In “Transform” students create hero projects, where they identify issues and injustices in their communities and strategize how they can combat them.Get Media L.I.T. uses graphic novels to engage students, and leverages social emotional learning as a gateway for positive mental health and community changemaking. We help students learn to love themselves, so they can use that love to help others and their communities. 

My project serves low income Black and Latino youth.  2/3rds of students in the US can’t read on grade level. Research shows that if you fall behind on literacy, you tend to stay behind. It also shows that if you aren’t reading on grade level by the 5th grade, you’re 4 times more likely to drop out of high school, and 3.5 times more likely to end up in prison by the age of 25. The students I serve live in a reality where COVID-19 school closures have limited their academic progress , and racial tensions across the US have had devastating effects on their mental health. My project supports them in two ways. By using comics featuring diverse heroes, my project raises literacy levels, writing levels, and gets students exercising the academic skills crucial for their mental development. In addition to that, the comics are partnered with culturally accessible social emotional learning curricula that helps students process difficult emotions, relate to others across lines of difference, and identify personal strengths that can help their communities. My project stops students from being left behind, and empowers them to be the heroes on and off the page. 

Stories have an unprecedented ability to change people’s hearts and minds. My project uses diverse comics to expose students to new points of view and help them identify with people that are different than them.  Bigotry is often the root cause of  a lot of the bullying and discrimination young people face, so my project uses SEL as a tool to decode bias and improve understanding, directly resulting in changes in attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. My project also empowers students to fight issues in their communities, so I’m so I’m preparing young people to fight the world's most pressing problems. 

I founded Weird Enough as a college junior. While volunteering at a local elementary school I mentored a fourth grader named Nazir.  Halloween was approaching, and when asked if he would be dressing like his favorite hero, he told me. “I can’t, I don’t look like them. I’m going to dress as CJ from Grand Theft Auto.” Due to the misrepresentation of black men in the media he saw, he didn’t think he could be a hero. My experience with Nazir compelled me to act, because when I looked at him I saw an entire generation, I saw myself. I thought about the mental health issues I experienced as a kid constantly bullied by my peers. I thought about how low self esteem and self confidence made me hate myself, to the point of attempting to end my own life. When I was in my dark place, I found solace and self love in the pages of comic books and manga where underdogs became heroes. I founded Weird Enough with the belief that I could use the same medium that helped me unlock the hero in myself, to unlock the hero in every student. 

As a young black man I know firsthand what happens when racism and mental health disparities are allowed to run rampant. At 14 years old I attempted to end my own life. Racism from my teachers and peers made me doubt my life’s value.Today, at 26, I’ve built a sustainable organization that has impacted hundreds of thousands of students around the country. I’m a shining example of what students of color can accomplish if they’re given the chance to affirm and love themselves. However, I’ve also seen how devastating it is when they aren’t given that chance. Around the same time that I won my battle with suicide, my best friend Deshaye lost hers. To this day I mourn not only the loss of who she was, but the loss of who she would have become. Everyday I approach my work with the belief that I won’t let a single student be blind to their potential to change the world. For the young Tonys, the Nazirs, and the Deshayes. Black and Brown kids who are flooded with so many images of people that look like them being treated inhumanely that it makes them doubt their own humanity.

Who better to help young people of color than a young person of color? I began this work at 19 years old, one year later I became one of the youngest people to ever be selected for the Echoing Green Black Male Achievement Fellowship. My unique idea to incorporate comics into social emotional learning has landed me on the Forbes 30 Under 30, the TED Stage, as well as the pages of EdSurge, Inc. and the Huffington Post. Growing up, my mother was a public school teacher,  an assistant principal, principal, and a superintendent. As a result, I’ve seen school systems both from the classroom and behind the scenes at every level. My educational background, along with my firsthand experiences with mental health helped me develop a program that appeases the needs of educational institutions while also resonating positively with students. And the results have been extraordinary. In 2019 I was recognized as a National Barrier Breaker by Marriott International and in 2020 I was selected as a History Shaker by Coca Cola. My work has been recognized by CASEL and the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Due to my age I do not possess decades of domain expertise, however, my lived experiences have allowed me to create innovative ideas who’s results can’t be denied.

I faced a significant challenge when COVID-19 caused nationwide school closures that separated over 60 million students from academic resources. The problem was two fold. Inequitable implementation of distance learning strategies meant the vulnerable student populations I worked with were in danger of being left even further behind in their educational development. Plus, the closures took place at the peak of the education sales cycle,  meaning that if decisive action wasn’t taken, my organization would feel the negative financial impacts for the next year. In an effort to serve students I immediately made over 400 pages of comics and educational materials free to students, parents, and caregivers. In the first week my organization impacted over 15,000 households. As word began to spread of our work, I was invited to write an op-ed in EdSurge(https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-06-16-antiracism-in-social-emotional-learning-why-it-s-not-enough-to-talk-the-talk), and within a month we had not only served 50,000 households, but had been invited to partner with over a dozen new school districts even in the midst of school closures. When challenges arise, I think about the young people I serve, and find innovative ways to drive impact and forge new allies. 

Just before my senior year, my high school was scheduled to be closed. I had been placed at this school after years of bullying at a previous institution led me to attempt suicide. IThe possibility of losing my new home compelled me to act. Fueled with passion for my school and community, I decided to be a leading voice in the fight to keep my school open. Over the course of two months, I facilitated a calling campaign to increase school enrollment, established sponsorships with local companies, and executed a social media campaign to attract donors. These efforts were effective, but the real change came when I pitched our story to local newspapers and radio stations. Through online media and broadcasting, the story of my school spread around the nation.  By June, our high school enrollment had doubled and we secured sponsorships of over $100,000. Not only was my high school able to remain open, I also helped establish a scholarship fund that is still providing an education for students six years later. Using passion, creative thinking, and social innovation, I took a school from failing to thriving before I received my high school diploma.