March: National Child Life Month; Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off" Video by children

Taylor Swift's 'Shake it Off' Video by Children's Hospital Patients Is an Inspiration

Christine CoppaMarch 17, 2015

March is National Child Life month — and one hospital wants to celebrate it with a bang.

That’s how the idea of having the patients and staff at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) perform an epic lip syncing of Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off” was born, Andrea McGinnis, specialist in the Child Life Creative Arts Department there, tells Yahoo Parenting.

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“Shake It Off is a catchy song and we love the idea of really shaking it off,” McGinnis says. “The kids here in our hospital are sick, going through very challenging things — everyone wishes kids wouldn’t have to go through [this]. Let’s have some fun, shake it off and forget about the hard stuff!”

“We’ve seen other hospitals that have done lip syncing videos that have gone viral, so we thought, why not do that?” McGinnis adds of the video, which has indeed been streamed more than 250K times since it was posted on YouTube on March 12.

“Quite a few patients in the video are inpatient, but are keeping track of the YouTube hits and they are posting it on their social media sites,” McGinnis says. “They are very excited!”

The hospital’s take shows nurses in bright scrubs dancing on a handrail like the ballerinas in Swift’s video and doctors showing off moves “choreographed by child life specialists that have dance backgrounds,” McGinnis says.

But the real stars are the kids, who got a much needed dose of good cheer by performing.

“The child life creative Arts Department helps kids cope with the hospital setting overall,” says McGinnis. “That can be helping them understand [medical] procedures, to making sure they are having a lot of fun — and we try to make this place as normal as possible.”

As the video pans we get a real sense of the magic that goes on every day at CHOP — and not just in March. Children are dressed up in costumes, painting, reading, playing video games, riding in little cars down the hallway, and playing musical instruments. Homemade painted posters, SpongeBob pillows, flashlights, and pink cushy blankets make things look and feel homey.

Swift is no stranger to the children’s hospital, either. Last summer, she donated $50,000 to support and create specialized programs for teens being treated at the hospital’s cancer center.

Hannah Stetson, who lost half her colon, said it was “really fun” to be in the Swift video — she thinks the musician is “amazing.”

Halim Smith who is awaiting a liver transplant, joined in on the fun, telling CBS Philadelphia, “Even though we’re in the hospital we can still have fun you know.” He says Swift’s song has an important message: “Shake all the bad stuff off and think [of] everything in a positive way, don’t think of everything as being bad.”

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