def METHOD_NAME(self, follower):
    """
    Takes the contents of a span where 'follower' is true.
    Splits any 'follower' characters from alpha numeric characters.
    Sets the 'following' attr on the previous data point with true followers
    and sends new alpha numeric string to be lemmatized.
    Returns None
    """
    followers = []
    text = []
    for idx, ch in enumerate(follower):
        if ch.isalnum():
            text = follower[idx:]
            break
        followers.append(ch)
    if len(self.lemmatized_text_data) > 0:
        self.lemmatized_text_data[-1]["following"] += "".join(followers)
    else:
        # this will only occur if the text begins with a "follower"
        self.lemmatized_text_data.append(
            {
                "word": "",
                "lemma_id": None,
                "resolved": True,
                "word_normalized": "",
                "following": "".join(followers)
            }
        )
    if (len(text) > 0):
        self.lemmatize_chunk("".join(text))