Shake it off, Taylor Swift, this little girl is taking over – and she is doing it for a good cause.
What started as an adorable video of a tiny little girl dancing to Swift’s hit “Shake It Off” turned into an opportunity for mom to educate others about dwarfism when she saw how many shares it was getting.
“I decided, if it’s being shared why not take advantage of it,” Angela Thurber told KCTV5 . She decided to use the video’s popularity to raise awareness for her daughter’s medical condition.
WGN reports that Rilee has achondroplasia, which according to the March of Dimes , affects the bone growth in the limbs and is a common cause of dwarfism. Although she is only 32 inches tall, she doesn’t let her height stop her from enjoying all the things other little girls do — like singing and dancing to “Shake It Off.”
Thurber created another Facebook page, Smiles From Rilee , to share video and information about Rilee’s dwarfism, and since she originally posted it in mid-October, the video has had over a million shares.
Once you see her “Shake It Off,” you’ll see why so many people have fallen in love with her.
Rilee’s parents are using the Facebook page to share photos and videos of their adorable daughter’s cute antics, but mixed in with all that cuteness is information to help promote understanding of dwarfism.
“It’s to raise awareness. Obviously here and there I’m going to post things of her showing her cute personality,” Thurber said. “Occasionally I’ll throw in a resource or something on dwarfism to help educate people.”
A recent Inquisitr article shows how insensitive some people can be to those with dwarfism.
“Oftentimes people don’t know about details surrounding dwarfism,” Thurber said. “Even though it’s such a common thing, so many people are unaware of it and so many people are scared of it. I guess they’re scared of the unknown.”
Rilee also faces health problems because of her condition, and her parents post updates on her health on the Facebook page also, hoping that others with dwarfism can learn from their daughter.
“You would think in this day and age — everyone has Facebook — it would be easy to connect with someone with dwarfism,” Angela told AL.com . “I’ve had so many people say, ‘It’s so nice to see your daughter. It’s so hard to connect with people with dwarfism.’”
She says teaching Rilee about her condition isn’t easy, but she is beginning to understand a little more as she gets older.
“She’s recently been more aware of it, how she’s going to be smaller,” her mom said. “Sometime she’s happy with it, sometimes she’s not. She’s accepting it more now.”
[Image via WGHP ]
