10-year-old girl designs her own magical 'Cinderella' dress during battle with cancer
In honor of an iconic film's 75th anniversary, a Georgia girl battling cancer has made her very own 'Cinderella' gown.
Rita Huls, a 10-year-old designer-in-training, has a cancerous tumor and is actively receiving treatment for the cancer, Disney shared this week. She designed her own dress on a trip to Walt Disney World Resort organized by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, just in time for the 75th anniversary of 'Cinderella' on Saturday, Feb. 15.
Huls' Wish Trip included a visit to Magic Kingdom and the opportunity to meet the characters of her favorite movie: Cinderella and Prince Charming, as well as Cinderella's stepsisters Anastasia and Drizella, said Abbey Parodi, a costume development manager at Disney World who got to meet Rita and work on her dress.
Huls, who is one of over 360,000 children whose wishes have been granted as part of the Make-A-Wish Foundation's program, worked with Parodi and other costume staffers to create her very own half-scale, or doll-sized, princess gown she named 'Rita's Rose Diamond Dress."
Young designer got to lay eyes on 'all the colors of thread you could ever imagine'
As part of her Wish Trip, Huls got to tour the costuming department at Disney World on Dec. 31, Parodi said.
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'She really was able to see all the steps," Parodi said. "What we'd like to design ... how it's built, and how it's put on our wonderful performers."
Huls visited the sewing floor of the workroom (to see how the costumes are put together), patterning tables, the cut floor (where the designers and patternmakers work) and more, Parodi said.
Perhaps one of the most memorable moments was when Huls first turned the corner to see the sewing floor, Parodi said, adding that it's fitting that this was part of Huls' Wish Trip.
'We have a thread wall that's just all the colors of thread you could ever imagine,' Parodi said. 'Someone like me who loves to sew, someone like Rita who loves to design, it's little things like that that are just so pretty to see and so magical.'
'I got to go to a top-secret fashion place at Disney,' young designer says
Huls had a session with a Disney designer to go over what she envisioned for her dress, Parodi said. She was able to look through a spread of fabrics, rhinestones and more.
She worked with a designer to draw and add elements to her gown design, choosing colors, trims and drawing on a tablet to make adjustments.
'It was so fun to see her layer different fabrics over top of each other, pick out the colors she liked, hold things up, see what looked best together,' Parodi said, adding that Huls went with pink and purple fabrics, as well as pink organza and sequined white organza for a sparkling effect.
Disney World's designers brought her ideas to life in just under a week, Parodi said. Once her dress was complete, it was shipped to her, Parodi said.
'This was something that was so exciting for our department to be able to do because we're seeing the joy and the happiness on her face in the moment,' Parodi said. 'We were just really happy to have this wish come true for her.'
Huls said in a blog post about her Wish Trip that she 'had a blast' at Disney World.
'I was so excited because I got to go to a top-secret fashion place at Disney,' Huls said in the post. 'I got to see all the ways costumes are designed, which was really cool.'
Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.
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