14-year-old makes and donates bow ties to help shelter animals find their forever homes

This article originally appeared on 07.11.19
Young entrepreneur Darius Brown is on a mission to find homes for shelter animals, and he's doing it with style—literally. The 14-year-old makes bow ties for dogs and cats in the hopes that it will help more of them find homes.
Many people find it hard to resist a puppy. But a puppy with a bowtie? That's just not even fair.
Brown, who goes by Sir Darius Brown on social media, wears a bow tie himself most of the time. "Literally everywhere I go, I wear a bow tie" he says.
It all started when he was eight and his older sister started making hair bows in cosmetology school. Brown had been diagnosed at age two with comprehension, speech, and fine motor skills delays, and helping out with his sister's sewing projects seemed to help him.
"With his fine motor skills, he wasn't able to really use his hands well—tying a shoe was challenging," his sister told the Today Show. "My mother and I came up with the idea that if he helped us with things like prepping the ribbon or cutting it, and sewing fabric together, it would help him. And it did—it worked!"
Brown started making his own bow ties to wear, and eventually his love of animals led him to make them for his furry friends also. He has now donated hundreds of ties to animal shelters all over the country.
"It helps the dog look noticeable, very attractive," Brown told Today. "It helps them find a forever, loving home…I love everything about dogs and cats."
Seriously, though. So. Not. Fair.
Brown has created his own organization called Beaux and Paws, and he's begun fundraising to be able to provide more ties. He's also received donations of fabric and supplies from people who support his mission. "The donations help a lot because we were just digging in our pockets, buying the fabric ourselves," his mother told Today. He now uses GoFundMe to bring his "paw-some" mission to life.
And the good work doesn't stop there. During the pandemic, he created over 100 face coverings for essential workers and the homeless as well as created koala mittens for koalas bears that burned their hands due to the Australian bushfires. Sir Darius hopes to continue bringing more awareness to pet adoption, finding new ways to support shelters and pet adoption, and encouraging youth to get involved with volunteering at shelters.
The preteen's work hasn't gone unnoticed. Former President Barack Obama even sent him a letter of praise in 2018.
"Dear Darius," Obama's letter reads. "After hearing your story, I wanted to reach out to commend you for your commitment to community service. From founding Beaux and Paws to lifting up the lives of those around you, it's clear you are doing your part to look out for your fellow citizens. And I trust you take tremendous pride in all you have accomplished.
As long as you stay engaged in the world around you, continue looking for ways to help others, and never give up on yourself, I'm confident our future will be bright. Know that I'm rooting for you in all you do, and I wish you the very best."
Well done, Sir Darius! Keep up the inspiring work.
Upworthy and GoFundMe are celebrating ideas that make the world a better, kinder place. Visit upworthy.com/kindness to join the largest collaboration for human kindness in history and start your own GoFundMe.
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Can a warm cup of tea help you sleep better? If you believe it, then yes. Photo by 
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Resurfaced video of French skier's groin incident has people giving the announcer a gold medal
"The boys took a beating on that one."
Downhill skiing is a sport rife with injuries, but not usually this kind.
A good commentator can make all the difference when watching sports, even when an event goes smoothly. But it's when something goes wrong that great announcers rise to the top. There's no better example of a great announcer in a surprise moment than when French skier Yannick Bertrand took a gate to the groin in a 2007 super-G race.
Competitive skiers fly down runs at incredible speeds, often exceeding 60 mph. Hitting something hard at that speed would definitely hurt, but hitting something hard with a particularly sensitive part of your body would be excruciating. So when Bertrand slammed right into a gate family-jewels-first, his high-pitched scream was unsurprising. What was surprising was the perfect commentary that immediately followed.
This is a clip you really just have to see and hear to fully appreciate:
- YouTube youtu.be
It's unclear who the announcer is, even after multiple Google inquiries, which is unfortunate because that gentleman deserves a medal. The commentary gets better with each repeated viewing, with highlights like:
"The gate the groin for Yannick Bertrand, and you could hear it. And if you're a man, you could feel it."
"Oh, the Frenchman. Oh-ho, monsieurrrrrr."
"The boys took a beating on that one."
"That guy needs a hug."
"Those are the moments that change your life if you're a man, I tell you what."
"When you crash through a gate, when you do it at high rate of speed, it's gonna hurt and it's going to leave a mark in most cases. And in this particular case, not the area where you want to leave a mark."
Imagine watching a man take a hit to the privates at 60 mph and having to make impromptu commentary straddling the line between professionalism and acknowledging the universal reality of what just happened. There are certain things you can't say on network television that you might feel compelled to say. There's a visceral element to this scenario that could easily be taken too far in the commentary, and the inherent humor element could be seen as insensitive and offensive if not handled just right.
The announcer nailed it. 10/10. No notes.
The clip frequently resurfaces during the Winter Olympic Games, though the incident didn't happen during an Olympic event. Yannick Bertrand was competing at the FIS World Cup super-G race in Kvitfjell, Norway in 2007, when the unfortunate accident occurred. Bertrand had competed at the Turin Olympics the year before, however, coming in 24th in the downhill and super-G events.
As painful as the gate to the groin clearly as, Bertrand did not appear to suffer any damage that kept him from the sport. In fact, he continued competing in international downhill and super-G races until 2014.
According to a 2018 study, Alpine skiing is a notoriously dangerous sport with a reported injury rate of 36.7 per 100 World Cup athletes per season. Of course, it's the knees and not the coin purse that are the most common casualty of ski racing, which we saw clearly in U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn's harrowing experiences at the 2026 Olympics. Vonn was competing with a torn ACL and ended up being helicoptered off of the mountain after an ugly crash that did additional damage to her legs, requiring multiple surgeries (though what caused the crash was reportedly unrelated to her ACL tear). Still, she says she has no regrets.
As Bertrand's return to the slopes shows, the risk of injury doesn't stop those who live for the thrill of victory, even when the agony of defeat hits them right in the rocks.