Inspirational stories populate LeBron’s account

During the NBA playoffs, LeBron James avoids his social media accounts. He calls it zero dark thirty. It’s his time to focus on basketball.

But click on James’ Instagram. It’s active with stories. During the playoffs, the Cavaliers superstar has turned his Instagram account over to people with inspirational stories, sto- ries of people who are doing something to change their communities and the world.

Florida teen Jaylen Arnold appeared on James’ Instagram account this week promoting Jaylen’s Challenge, his cause to eliminate bullying. Arnold has Tourette Syndrome, Asperger Syndrome and obsessive compulsive disorder and was bullied when he was younger.

“If we come together and banish bullying for all and spread love, we can stop the darkness in this world,” Arnold says in the video on James’ Instagram.

“There’s so many stories, so many different inspirational stories going on out in the world,” James told USA TODAY. “There are so many people with great stories, and I wanted the opportunity to use my platform for the greater good — all shapes and sizes, in all different forms.” All the stories have a message. After bees stung her twice, Mikaila Ulmer, now an eighth-grader, wanted to learn more about bees and their place in the ecosystem. She discovered the importance of honeybees but learned they are dying at an alarming rate, impacting necessary pollination.

So she used her great grandmother’s recipe for flaxseed lemonade sweetened with honey and she started selling it. Her Me and the Bees Lemonade is in grocery stores across the country with a percentage of profits donated to honeybee-saving causes.

“It’s just people talking about how passionate they are about what they’re doing and how important they are to their communities and what it means to have a dream and, more importantly, what it means to go tackle that dream and become something more than what even your loved ones thought you could become,” James said.

Since the playoffs started, James’ Instagram has featured 14 stories, and he’s been involved in selecting each story for his account with 37.3 million followers. Nike and the LeBron James Family Foundation are also sifting through submissions, and James said, “There’s so many coming in, we’re not going to be able to get to them all. We’re not saying ones are better than others. We’re finding ones that seem the most organic and most real and just posting them.”

Each story on James’ account starts with the words “Always Believe.” The idea sprouted in the last week of the regular season.

The most recent story features Georgia teen Hannah Testa, who started “Hannah 4 Change,” which encourages people to reduce their plastic footprint.

“Did you know that Scientists predict by 2050 our oceans will actually contain more plastic than fish by weight … The average American uses around 500 plastics bags each year,” she says on James’ account. “So, if you’re a family of four like mine that’s 2,000 bags that we can keep out of the landfills, streams and oceans each year if you just bring reusable bags to the store.”

Jahkil Naeem Jackson started making for homeless people “blessing bags,” which contain socks, deodorant, hand sanitizer, toothbrush, toothpaste, water and granola bars.

“All the stories are so genuine, and they all come from the heart,” James said. “I love them.”