Update (February 12, 2020): Seven-year-old Taylor, a viral victim of pencil theft, is finally getting justice thanks to an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
On a Wednesday episode of the NBC talk show, Taylor rehashed the incident which led her to go viral in late January. She explained that her classmate, Lizzie, took her pink perfect attendance pencil without her permission. In addition to being able to vent about the pencil thief to a studio audience, she shared a development in the case of the pink pencil: she did eventually receive the special writing tool back thanks to a kind peer named Autumn.
We also discovered Taylor gets these perfect attendance pencils every year.
But given the nature of the popular daytime show, DeGeneres obviously planned to offer Taylor more than just a listening ear.
She gave her an oversized pink pencil that bore the words "Property Of Taylor," with which the young student appeared quite pleased. She also had a carton of school supplies for Taylor's classmates.
Taylor, who told DeGeneres she wants to be a science teacher, was also gifted a $10,000 college scholarship from Shutterfly.
"You get to do all these cool experiments and you never know what's going to happen but something cool always happens," Taylor said of her love for science.
Amid hearing news of the monetary reward, the young girl's jaw dropped.
Naturally, DeGeneres also made sure to write Taylor a note which would excuse her absence for the day since she visited the show on a school day.
Watch the clip below:
Original story (February 2, 2020): It seems like Twitter and Instagram are always full of people fighting over this or that, but one thing people can agree on is that you should never steal a little girl's pencil.
An adorable 7-year-old went viral on Friday when her mother shared a video of her giving a very in-depth recap of a situation involving another student stealing her favorite pencil, which she said she won for having a perfect attendance record.
The little girl, Taylor, was angry that her mother and teacher were not taking her predicament seriously, and the internet agreed.
After Taylor's mom posted the video to her Instagram page, it racked up nearly 45,000 views. The clip took on a life of its own when it was posted on Twitter, where it quickly reached more than 2 million views and almost 150,000 likes.
"When I unpack, I go to get my pencil and guess what I saw," an increasingly indignant Taylor says, "Nothing but yellow plain old pencils. I couldn't find my perfect attendance pencil…somebody and I know who stole my perfect attendance pencil who didn't even earn one because they were in Canada."
Taylor goes on to describe the exchange she had with her classmate, whom she refers to as Lizzie and how she told her she was fully undeserving of the pencil because she wanted to be traveling to different countries.
Even after this conversation, Lizzie allegedly never returned the pencil. And the teacher didn't do a thing.
I know I'm not ready to be a parent bc I'd be at that school the next day like "Yal deadass finna come up off my baby Perfect Attendance Pencil NEEOOOWW!!" pic.twitter.com/ezTc0fq1Ug
— Dreka Gates ???? (@_FemGod) January 31, 2020
While a few people agreed with Taylor's mother that it wasn't a big deal, many Twitter users took the little girl's side, calling for the culprit who stole the pencil, Lizzie, to get some kind of punishment.
Everybody that's agreeing "it's just a pencil" please think back to gel pens in elementary/middle school. Every single one of us has experienced this kind of theft. Empathize with this baby or get out my mentions lmfao
— Dreka Gates ???? (@_FemGod) January 31, 2020
Parents don’t DOWNPLAY WHATS IMPORTANT TO YOUR CHILD!!! It messes them up later on in life. Be passionate about what’s important to them. DAYUM. Lady at the end of the video need to catch a fade too. All this emotion this child@gave you and you gave her “ehh,it’s just a pencil”
— QUEEN! where is SLIM? (@hydr8hoe) January 31, 2020
I understand Lizzie is a child but… I don’t like her. This is the type of person who steals people stuff after PLOTTING on it, then pretends it’s not a big deal when asked for it, then loses it on purpose rather than returning it. I’m angry. pic.twitter.com/0852XvNt5t
— Doreen ????✨ (@DoreenGLM) January 31, 2020
Lizzie better give her back her perfect attendance pencil and earn her own????????
— ???????? (@rahm3sh) January 31, 2020
This girl has a strong sense of justice and I LOVE IT.
I’m not going to criticize her parents because they have already been raising this child right. It makes me mad that the teacher didn’t address it. As a mom, I’d give the teacher a little nudge. ????????— Miss Matched Shoes (@threejuniormnts) January 31, 2020
Once people started to take the video a little too seriously, Taylor's mother responded on Instagram, writing that she understood why her daughter was angry but "as a teacher I’m like, get over it and don’t leave it out for the public."
After more negative comments toward her, she wrote: "OK OK OK y’all sheesh I get it. But really she just needs her own sharpener so she doesn’t have to risk it ????. I didn’t and still don’t like to share so I get it lol."
The video was so popular that both Taylor and Lizzie were trending for a few hours.
Taylor is no stranger to social media. In 2017, the internet fell in love with a fun video of her talking about President Barack Obama leaving office.
Hopefully, Taylor can get her pink perfect attendance pencil back, but, at the very least, she knows there are a lot of people who have her back.
