You might recall that a few weeks ago, Taylor Swift was asked to prom by high school student Devin Whitney from Aurora, Colo. But this wasn’t a standard prom invite. Devin suffers from a rare disease called Oto-Palatal-Digital Syndrome (OPD), which affects his body from head to toe.
Tired of being bullied by his classmates, Devin went out on a limb to invite the country superstar to be his date to the big dance, hoping that it would boost his confidence. Understandably, Ms. Swift can’t do it all, so she had to decline the invite — but not without responding to Devin’s family.
The teen made a video in which he holds up index cards which tell his story to the camera. As viewers read the index cards, they learn that Devin has been bullied at school because of his condition. Because he’s afraid of rejection, he didn’t want to ask any of his classmates to prom. But then he thought that if he could get a gorgeous date like Swift to hang on his arm, nobody could possibly make fun of him.
The video went viral pretty quickly, garnering close to 35,000 views. That was enough for the award-winning country singer to take notice. Though Swift couldn’t attend the big dance with Devin, she wanted to give him some kind of encouragement, so she asked one of her representatives to contact his family. The rep told Devin that Swift was sorry she couldn’t make it, but she thinks that he’s a very special person.
Devin wasn’t the first teen to ask the ‘Mean’ hitmaker out on a date. Two-time cancer patient and high school senior Kevin McGuire asked Swift to his prom, and she countered him with an invite to be her date to the ACMs back in April. Sadly, McGuire was too sick to make it to the awards show.
Just this week, Swift made news again for her good heart when she called a fallen soldier’s family and sent flowers to pay her respects. The country songstress gets plenty of requests from fans, and it sounds like she does her best to come through.
Sad that Swift couldn’t make Devin’s dream come true, but she did give him enough confidence to attend the dance. And it’s a good thing, too. He was crowned Prom King that night!
