Most little girls dream of being a princess like Cinderella, Snow White or Aurora. For one little girl, however, it is the villains of Disney that she is a fan of and now she has the leg braces to prove it.
After being born premature at 24 weeks, 8-year-old Hope Laliberte, of Fall River Massachusetts, suffers from cerebral palsy and an uncommon form of epilepsy.
Confined to leg braces for the last four years, her parents wanted to customize them to display Hope’s passion.
The Boston Children’s Hospital, where Hope was fitted for her leg braces, was very limited with what they could do in terms of design so Hope’s parents turned to a local tattoo artist for help.
Owner of the tattoo parlor Up in Flames, Aaron Guillemette, created custom designs of Ursula from “The Little Mermaid” and Cruella de Vil from “101 Dalmatians” to be applied to Hope’s leg braces.
“I’m glad to be in a position where I can help the community in any way,” Guillemette told Today Parent. “When I was first approached about designing Hope’s braces, I thought it would be an awesome idea– especially when I heard what the subject matter would be. Hope wanted Disney villains on her braces, not princesses.”
Using sticker paper to create the designs, Guillemette placed the sticker paper directly onto Hope’s leg braces and used polyurethane to help protect them. The designs themselves, are remarkable. Hope certainly agrees.
“I screamed,” Hope told Today Parent about her reaction when she first saw the leg braces. Guillemette was overjoyed as well.
“The look on her face when I gave them to her was worth everything it took to make them,” he said.
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