'Stuff Curry' emerges from tragedy to become Internet sensation

— -- Landon Benton is quite the celebrity these days. After all, most 10-month-olds don't have 24,000 followers on Instagram.

It was a picture of the son of Jessica and Tommie Benton of Quincy, Ill., that was being passed around social media in February. One person who saw it called Landon "Stuff Curry." "I didn't know what it meant at the time and kind of got upset, because a lot of the other comments weren't very nice," Jessica said. "So I ended up googling 'Stuff Curry' and I got Steph Curry."

Benton didn't know who Steph Curry was, but once she found out, she very easily could have stopped there.

"I'm not going to let them fat shame my baby and put it all over online and I just give up there," Benton said. "I wanted to really turn it into something good and take control of it and say, 'OK, we're gonna own this name. Yeah, we're Stuff Curry. We look like the famous basketball player.'"

If it seems like Benton was prepared for the moment, it's because she was. Her strength is unfortunately rooted in tragedy. When she was pregnant with Landon, she said, her 20-year-old son killed himself.

"When he was in 11th grade, he told me about how the kids at school would say mean things to him and call him names and make fun of him. And I didn't realize how much that had taken a toll with his own self-esteem at the time," Jessica said. "I can't say it's directly due to bullying or anything, but I have one kid who's not here with me who told me that people made fun of him. I'm not going to have another kid think that the whole world was laughing at him."

"I have people that message me and they're like, 'I just wanted to let you know, my mom loves your baby and we have secretly adopted him into our own family,'" Benton said. "'He's so gorgeous, we love him. He looks just like Steph Curry.'"

Given Landon's amazing reach, Benton is used to seeing new packages at her door: a shirt for Landon to wear or a product for him to hold. Fanatics made him a Steph jersey with "Stuff" on the back, Under Armour made sure he got the Curry Twos.

"It's like Christmas every day for Landon," Jessica said.

She isn't sure how long her son is going to continue to be "Stuff Curry." Landon can't talk, of course, and her husband Tommie doesn't seem to mind, save for one picture which exposed Landon's tush in the bathtub.

Basketball games aren't on in the Benton household, even at this time of year, but Jessica knows that what's good for Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors will be good for her son.

Said Benton: "I'm rooting for them to win everything."