7-Year-Old Boy Fell in Love with Baton Twirling at a Local Parade. Now, He’s Wowing the Internet with His Tricks (Exclusive)

A mom who allowed her 7-year-old son to follow his passions is now hoping to make the internet a more accepting place.

Kayleigh was sharing different bits of her life with friends on TikTok when she first posted a video of her son, Noel, practicing baton twirling. He fell in love with the activity after seeing a majorette team perform in his hometown in Wales.

“There was a majorette team from out of town there, and they were doing a display. When he saw it, Noel turned around. He watched it all, and he said as soon as it finished that he wanted to join that majorette team,” the mom of three tells PEOPLE.

“A couple of weeks later, he was in the team training for their new season. And he hasn’t put that baton down since the moment he picked it [up].”

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At first, Kayleigh had hesitations about sharing Noel online “because of what people are like in this world,” but after a while, she wanted to share his talent and his light beyond those who know them personally.

“One day I thought, ‘I’m going to do it because he has got so much talent in him and I know a lot of people would love to see it.’ And what do you know? I posted one video of [him] and then it just took off. He just absolutely lives and breathes majorettes.”

Kayleigh knew there would be naysayers online, but was still taken aback at how many adults would comment, insinuating rude stereotypes. It’s taken some practice to “not allow them to get on my nerves,” she admits.

“You have to turn something bad into something positive. And I think that’s where the world goes wrong. When people are saying negative things to you and you address them back negatively, angrily, then you are just adding to that fire, really, aren’t you? You are helping that negativity grow,” she shares.

“To me, they’re just children. Let them do whatever they want to do. When Noel said to me, ‘I want to do that,” you’ve got to remember in the majorette team that we watched, almost every single person in that team was a girl. There was one boy in there. But that never even crossed his mind, and when he mentioned it to me, I didn’t even question it.”

Kayleigh is also proud of the hard work Noel puts into the hobby.

“During the season, we’re up at four every morning on a Sunday in the season because we have to. We live in a little place called Anglesey in North Wales. We’re literally right at the edge of the island, but we don’t have anything like that really around our area. So we have to travel every weekend to England, to Liverpool, Leeds, and places like that to compete because there’s nothing around here like that,” she explains.

“It’s a lot different to American majorettes. He dances obviously in a team, and I think they call it military style. So they have so many different things to do in their routine. They go on for about six minutes, and they have to do marching, they have to do formations. They’ve got to get their spacings right. There’s the team and then up front, you’ve got the leader and you’ve got the mascot,” she continues, noting that Noel has scored the mascot spot for the upcoming season.

“So there’s a leader who leads the whole team. Then the mascot [is] like her little sidekick, and that’s who he’s been chosen to be. So now he’ll have a chance to shine by himself, as well as being part of the team. His potential is going to be pushed to another limit, I think. And we cannot wait to see that,” the proud mom shares, adding, “I get so excited to watch that first competition. I can’t wait. I’ll be crying.”

The mother and son choose to pay more attention to the comments praising Noel’s unique abilities, which have seen him wear a patch of grass out in his backyard from practicing.

“That makes me so happy and so much proud of him. It really does. It makes me cry sometimes. Some people message me privately and they thank me for putting him on TikTok. They say that me posting Noel on TikTok has healed their inner child because they weren’t allowed to do things like that when they were children, things that they wanted to do,” she shares.

“I love to see that the world loves Noel. That makes my heart so happy,” she says, noting how many commenters have stuck around to see him grow in his skills from when he got started at nearly 6 years old and where he’s at today.

“Everybody knows Noel. During majorette season, which runs from April until September, we go to competitions every single Sunday with his team. When you are there all day, I do not see that boy once. Only when he is dancing. He is off, and he is meeting all the other people from different teams, making friends. They’re all training together, learning new things together. It’s absolutely amazing.”

He’s also gotten to make friends with other boys who are fascinated with drum majoring.

“I think there’s about maybe eight, maybe pushing 10 altogether in the association that they’re a part of. And I tell you what, the boys are the ones to watch out for. They are incredible. When they’re doing their routine, you cannot take your eyes off the boys.”

Being online has helped Noel see more teams, including ones from the U.S., perform. He’s particularly fond of the University of Alabama Crimsonettes. A TikTok friend even “sent him a whole package from America, where her daughter is part of the team.”

It’s become Noel’s dream to visit the US and see them, as well as the Ohio State University Band, perform.

“They are incredible. Noel and I never knew what a drum major was until we came on TikTok. We never knew anything about drum majors, about these bands, nothing like that. We just knew majorettes, and we did not realize how big a thing it is in America. We could not believe it.”

When they aren’t practicing or competing, they work with their team to fundraise to make these moments possible.

“It’s all funded through parents. We pay for our bus seats and things for the competition. We pay for everything. But me and a friend, we’re also fundraising by selling raffles on Facebook. People win prizes and then we raise money for them, so we’re doing really well with that too,” she explains.

“And that’s another thing that I’m going to be doing once the season starts. Because my TikTok page now is getting monetized. Noel’s made himself a bit of money on there, that’s getting saved to go to America. But I’ve also spoken with the majorette troupe, the principal. And I said if they want, I can do a lot of content on everybody in the team on the competition days, and whatever money gets made through that video can go straight to them then.”

Kayleigh is also trying to do what she can to make the digital world a little friendlier and more accepting.

“I’ve decided to turn the hate from my TikTok into positivity, and what I have done so far [is] I’ve made a couple of workbooks of guides. There are two available to purchase so far. One of them is Growing Confident Children, and Breaking Stereotypes is another one. And I’ve done a whole guide about baton twirling for males. Hopefully, I can get somewhere with it,” she shares.

“I’ve had people message me and thank me for posting videos of Noel, and I never felt like I needed to be thanked for it. I’ve realized that there have been people in life who have been stopped from doing something they wanted to do because they’re not the right sex, and that’s just wrong. So hopefully, we can help make it right.”