Is Mr Whatsit based on a real story? 1962 report on 37 school children claim explored

Vol. 1 of Stranger Things Season 5 has introduced some new plot twists, along with the character Mr Whatsit, a disguise assumed by the show's apparent antagonist Henry Creel, also known as Vecna.

Anticipation for Vol. 2 is high as fans are eagerly awaiting certain mysteries to unfold, or to finally learn who the real villain is, the mastermind that's trying to destroy Hawkins by using Vecna. Multiple fan theories pertaining to how the story might unfold in the final four episodes are circulating online.

In the midst of all these theories, some viewers are also racking their brains about Henry Creel's new persona this season. Vecna, who otherwise showed up in his ghastly, vascular, and inhuman shape to his victims in Season 3, started approaching Holly Wheeler and his new targets in his human form.

A claim recently circulated online about what might have inspired the Duffer Brothers for Vecna/ Mr Whatsit's storyline and the twelve kids he has targeted to fulfill his mission.

According to the Facebook page Netflix Updates' post from December 14, Matt and Ross Duffer were inspired by an alleged 1962 incident in which 37 schoolchildren drew an imaginary friend.

The 37 kids reportedly never spoke to or met one another, yet they drew the same figure as their imaginary friend. Netflix Updates described the drawing as "a tall, faceless man with a top hat". The post further claimed:

​"Psychologists later suggested it may have been a rare case of shared imagery, where children exposed to similar stress or environments unknowingly created the same disturbing mental figure"

Did the Duffers base Mr Whatsit on the mysterious 'Yellow Echo'?

The lore about the 1962 incident, where 37 children with no prior acquaintance amongst themselves, drew the same figure at the same time, comes with different versions. According to a June 2025 post from @thecensoredtext_ on Instagram, the figure drawn by the school children "had no mouth. Just eyes and the smell of static".

@thecensoredtext_ claimed the incident took place at a school in Wyoming in 1962. The kids were from the same school but different grades. The man they drew had a "cord made of hair" in one hand.

The figure was reportedly dubbed 'Yellow Echo'. According to the post:

​"The kids said he only came when it rained. That he whispered through TVs. That he told them things they shouldn’t know like where one teacher kept his gun."

Two weeks after the children drew the figure, the teacher with the gun had allegedly disappeared without a trace, and the drawings vanished as well. @thecensoredtext_ wrote:

"The only thing left behind? A tape recorder, still running. It captured a child’s voice whispering: “We didn’t draw him. We remembered him.”

However, there is no historical evidence or records to prove this was a real incident that occurred in Wyoming in 1962. There is also no confirmation that the Duffer Brothers were inspired by this lore when they created Mr Whatsit, who only showed himself to selected children and was invisible to the rest.

The more plausible inspiration behind Mr Whatsit would be Mrs Whatsit from Madeleine L'Engle's fantasy novel, A Wrinkle In Time. Mike and Nancy Wheeler's younger sister, Holly, was seen reading this book in Season 5.

Later, when the trio's parents, Karen and Ted, were in the hospital, Mike came across the book to put some puzzle pieces together about the true identity of Holly's imaginary friend, Mr Whatsit.