Local NICU 'Barbie' Baby Wins Halloween Costume Contest

CHICAGO AREA, IL — It's a Barbie World, and even the littlest ladies are joining in on the girl power movement.

Advocate Children's Hospitals, with locations in Oak Lawn and Park Ridge, hosted its annual Halloween costume contest for its neonatal intensive care unit babies and several area families got creative with dressing their little ones up. The winner of this year's contest was Giovanna, a newborn from Kildeer, whose mother Jessica Giannini used doll clothing for her 8-week-old daughter's costume.

"We decided to do Barbie because growing up me and my siblings were Barbie fanatics and with the release of the movie this year it brought back a lot of those memories and it just felt right," Giannini said.

Jessica Giannini used a cake box, which she painted, to pose Giovanna in.

Giovanna was born 9 weeks early on Sept. 1, and is 8 weeks old.

"She has been doing great, and we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Feeding is starting to click and hopefully we can get her home very soon," Jessica Giannini said.

In October, families in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit worked with their child's care team to safely dress up their tiniest patients in costumes that are as simple or elaborate as they wanted, according to Advocate officials.

They then submitted photos, which were shared on Advocate Children’s Hospital’s Facebook page. The photos with the most reactions by noon Friday were deemed the contest winners.

Coming in second place was Alanni, of Chicago, who showed "you’re never too young for a little self-care" in her spa day attire, according to Advocate officials.