What a world of difference a tweet can make.
Alex Lee, a 16-year-old working at Target, became an overnight sensation when a girl tweeted a photo of him that went viral and garnered him instant fame.
"It's definitely changed a lot," he said. "It's pretty overwhelming, actually."
On CNBC's "Fast Money," Lee said that he hoped to do something positive with all the attention.
"We're just constantly talking about how we can influence other people in a positive way and just, I guess, make things better for other people of my generation," he said.
John Shahidi, the CEO of teen-centric selfie app Shots, said that he was consulting with Lee.
"There's a lot of potential. Right now, the goal is to keep momentum going and also figuring out how to convert this into something very positive," he said.
Shahidi said that he has been speaking with Lee and his parents on a daily basis to this end.
"There's really two things I've told Alex from Day One," he said. "We could make a lot of money, quick buck. Or, we can do something bigger, and let's use our power to do something positive."
In the span of six hours on Nov. 2, the teen went from working the register at Target to having more than 100,000 followers on Twitter after his photo caught fire.
Am i famous now? — Alex Lee (@acl163), Nov. 2, 2014
That number has grown in recent days to 733,000, as well as 2.4 million followers on Instagram.
But the attention hasn't all been positive. A New York Times story reported that Lee had received death threats and had personal information leaked.
During Lee's interview, social media lit up with discussions about Alex. Below is a selection of the posts: