Washington (CNN) The 13-year-old Internet phenom who gained national attention criticizing President Barack Obama and briefly was a part of the Ted Cruz campaign is renouncing conservatism, saying he's looking to be a voice unbound by party ideology. 
 
 CJ Pearson told CNN on Friday that concerns about the Republican Party's viewpoints on racial and gender disparity as well as youth issues convinced him he could no longer be a mouthpiece for conservatism. 
 
 "I was tired of being a champion of a party that turned a blind eye to racial discrimination. Tired of being a champion of any cause that denies equal rights to every American. Tired of being a champion of a party that doesn't care about the issues important to young people," Pearson wrote in an email. 
 
 The 13-year-old, African-American YouTube star from Georgia said in an interview that he began considering the change after a conversation with another teen friend, who asked why he doesn't speak out on racial discrimination -- to which he replied he was concerned his followers wouldn't be pleased. 
 
 Read More 

 CJ Pearson DESTROYS Common Core - Duration: 5 minutes, 8 seconds. 
 
 CJ had his first day back at school today so he thought it'd be great idea to throw it back to one of his videos on Common Core. TOTAL FAILURE. 
 
 
 
 Follow CJ on Twitter: @thecjpearson 
 
 Follow CJ on Ins... 

 A 13-year old who got famous in the conservative media for videos criticizing President Obama and others is now saying he can no longer stand by the Republican party. 
 
 The first video on CJ Pearson‘s YouTube page––posted back in January––is titled “President Obama: Do you really love America?” He’s posted plenty of other videos on issues from Hillary Clinton to radical liberals to plenty of race issues over the past years. 
 
 When the president invited Ahmed Mohamed to the White House after the now-infamous clock incident, Pearson posted a video asking, “When cops are gunned down, you don’t invite them to the White House. You never did. But when a Muslim kid builds a clock, come on by. What is this world you’re living in?” 
 
 And on top of all that, he worked for a time as chairman for Teens for Ted, a youth group backing Ted Cruz. 
 
 But Pearson told CNN in a report out tonight that he can no longer be a “champion of a party that turned a blind eye to racial discrimination.” 
 
 He explained, “I don’t want to be the conservative wonder kid that people follow because I make them feel good and like young people are part of their movement. I want to be followed because I’m the voice of a generation that doesn’t have a voice at the table.” 
 
 Pearson said he left Teens for Ted because Cruz wasn’t doing enough youth outreach, and made it clear “my views on the issues aren’t going to be dictated by one political platform or another.” He also apparently started to think about this decision after the video was released of Laquan McDonald being shot multiple times by the police. 
 
 It’s worth noting that one of his earliest videos, Pearson made an appeal to the Republican party to engage more with young people, saying “We can’t continue to be a party of old white guys.” 
 
 Now, there’s another reason why Pearson’s name might sound familiar. Back in September, he claimed that Obama blocked him on Twitter. The White House denied it and there were some questions about whether Pearson faked it. In the end, Pearson admitted to TheBlaze it was a hoax. 
 
 [image via screengrab] 
 
 — — 
 
 Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac 
 
 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
– Thirteen-year-old CJ Pearson became an Internet sensation in conservative circles this year by posting videos with titles like President Obama: Do you really love America?, criticizing Hillary Clinton, and joining the Ted Cruz campaign, Mediaite reports. It helped him amass 5 million viewers on his YouTube channel and 100,000 Facebook followers, according to CNN. But now the African-American teen says he can "no longer be a mouthpiece for conservatism." "I was tired of being a champion of a party that turned a blind eye to racial discrimination," Pearson says. "Tired of being a champion of any cause that denies equal rights to every American. Tired of being a champion of a party that doesn't care about the issues important to young people." In an interview with CNN, Pearson says the video of a Laquan McDonald's death released this week spurred him to reevaluate his views. He says he doesn't want to be popular just because he's the "anti-Obama kid" or because he makes Republicans feel good about having a young person on their side. But he won't be joining the Democrats either. Pearson says he doesn't want to be tied to the ideology of either party.