It’s no surprise that with his kind heart, and genuine love for his fans that Ashton Irwin generates them from all around the world. It’s not your age, gender or ethnicity that defines you as a fan. It’s your support, passion and genuine love for an artist that makes you a fan.
Six year old Zackary is just that, a fan. The music and kind words of Ashton and the guys of 5 Seconds Of Summer help him get through the struggles of daily life. Ashton’s love and kindness is what Zackary admires and wishes to be one day. ‘Mini-Ash’ is a nickname given not by his resemblance to Ashton’s appearance, but his heart and his character.
We had the amazing opportunity to get to know Zachary. We were able to find out who he is, what inspires him and how 5 Seconds Of Summer truly help him.
Zackary’s mom shared with us his amazing and inspiring story.
Zackary is my bold, energetic, inspiring six year old. He’s been through a lot of life in those six years. By age three he was diagnosed with bipolar, anxiety, ADHD & sensory processing disorder. These things made his life miserable. He couldn’t go out in public without struggling for fear a loud unexpected noise would occur. Parks, restaurants and stores overwhelmed him and were unbearable. Sleep was full of night terrors that would wake him up screaming. However, at age three everything changed when 5SOS entered his life. After hearing them sing for the first time by watching a YouTube video he told me with wide eyes that he was going to be ‘that drummer’ when her grew up. I had no idea at the time but 5SOS and ‘that drummer’ was exactly the medicine he needed. Over the past three years as he has grown into the six year old I know now his fascination with Ashton has grown. The more he falls in love with Ashton the easier life seems to become. Their music blaring from his iPod gets him through shopping and eating out. Ashton teaching him that ‘it’s okay to be an absolute reject’ has given him the courage to get out there and make friends at parks. Not everyone wants to play with a little boy who wears pink but thanks to the band he can move on from it and find someone else to play with. Oh, and the night terrors? He’s hasn’t had any since he started listening to 5SOS while he sleeps. The doctors have no idea why their music helps stop them but they know for sure it’s their music that making the night terrors stop. Because of 5SOS and ‘that drummer’ my son went from being afraid to live to living every second of his life to the fullest and without fear of marching to the beat of his own drum. Words will never express how thankful I am to those four boys, more specifically Ashton. I couldn’t have chosen a better role model then the one he chose when he chose Ashton.
Here is our exclusive interview with Zackary, ‘Mini-Ash’!
We want to thank ‘Mini-Ash’ and his mom for sharing his amazing story and for letting us do this interview!