This spring, our daughters, nieces, and friends started a Twitter trend, #PasadenaInPurple. They first tweeted this hashtag with a photo of Natalie along with an explanation not only of her intense love for life, but also of her love for the popular music group, One Direction. The girls aimed to raise allergy awareness through this tweet, but also to remember Natalie in a unique and unforgettable way. Before her passing, Natalie had been a monumental fan of the One Direction boys (Louis, Liam, Zayn, Harry, and especially Niall), and had been passionately anticipating the day in which she would see the group perform live at the Pasadena Rose Bowl on September 12th, 2014. Through their Twitter posts, the girls made a request to their fellow One Direction admirers (affectionately dubbed “Directioners”) that they wear purple (Natalie’s favorite color) to act as a reminder of Natalie’s presence, to remember her, and to raise allergy awareness in her honor. In seemingly no time at all, the trend took off as many Twitter users were inspired to retweet and compose their own tweets mentioning Natalie, the need for allergy awareness, and #PasadenaInPurple. At its peak, the hashtag made over 100,000 impressions on Twitter (this means that over 100,000 Twitter users would have seen a post about #PasadenaInPurple on their “timeline” of posts). The message our nieces, daughters, and friends had made definitely resonated with the public. The Pasadena Star News even published an online article regarding the enormous trend! When the long-awaited concert finally arrived, the girls lovingly crafted purple t-shirts to don, and we were truly amazed to see so many young people also wearing purple, showing their support for allergy awareness as well as for our Sunshine Girl. We are enormously proud of these girls and their use of the immense power of social media to reach out and make a difference, as well as all who supported them!
