“The partnership between Cook Children’s and Twisted X reaffirms our commitment to providing both patients and families with individualized resources tailored to their health care needs,” said Cook Children's Health Foundation Director of National and Regional Partnerships Natalie Houghton. “We continually strive to provide compassionate care and are proud to come together with Twisted X who shares this philanthropic focus.”  

Twisted X will continue to donate 100 percent of wholesale proceeds from every pair sold directly to Cook Children’s to benefit the Creative Arts Program. The program enables patients to explore new ways of expressing themselves through visual arts, connecting the creative arts with the art of healing. This initiative aims to help children relax, gain confidence, make choices, practice control, solve problems, adjust to the hospital, and achieve social, emotional, and physical goals. To date, $75,000 has been given back to the program, which served 2,700 patients in the last year. 

“Partnering with Cook Children’s is a chance to make a positive change in our community and we’re proud to support the Creative Arts Program,” said Twisted X CEO Prasad Reddy. “We continue to believe that little steps can make a big impact and it’s been incredibly rewarding to see this collection embody the joy of footwear design.” 

The updated collection includes two thoughtfully designed shoes created by patient-artists Brianna and Alex, who worked alongside Twisted X Designer Tuan Le to bring their visions to life. Each pair is named after the young designer and represents their dream shoe—a lightweight, slip-resistant design tailored for comfort and style. These shoes are ideal for medical staff, patient families, and supporters of Cook Children’s everywhere. 

To celebrate the new launch, Cook Children’s and Twisted X hosted a special event today at Cook Children’s Medical Center – Fort Worth. The event honored the patient designers and provided a fun, interactive experience for patients and families at the medical center.

The collection will be available in the gift shops at Cook Children’s medical centers in Fort Worth and Prosper. To learn more about the special collection, visit twistedx.com/pages/cook-childrens. 

The Cook Children's Creative Artist in Residence Programme (CARPE) offers opportunities for expression and control through a variety of artistic media. Through painting, music, writing, dance, theater and other artistic exploration, patients and families at Cook Children's connect the creative arts with the art of healing.

From Reporter Kevin Reece:

"Artist Sydney Peel is a former patient herself and is using her own brand of magic to help pediatric patients.

Cook Children’s Medical Center is in the business of saving lives. It takes a dedicated and intricately trained team to do that. 

But it is also a team that includes a rolling cart filled with paints, brushes, stickers… and plenty of glitter. 

‘Oh, for sure,’ said Sydney Peel when asked if glitter was indeed part of her cache of supplies.

Peel is the resident artist at Cook Children’s. On any given day you can find her pushing that cart from room to room offering pediatric patients a much-needed break from the sometimes less pleasant visit of doctors and nurses."

One day in 7^th grade, Emma came home especially upset about the cruel words hurled against her. The talented pre-teen picked up her ukulele and wrote a song.

I don't know what I'll do to brush off the dust.
You've really messed me up.
I don't know what I'll do to brush off the dust.
Don't you know, it’s mean to be mean.

Through music, Emma found the relief she desperately needed. Little did she know that song would one day be recorded in a professional studio and have its own music video.

Healing Through Music

Music is a passion for Emma. She plays five instruments and sings, but songwriting may be what she enjoys most.

“Writing music for me has been a big outlet. It helps me deal with a lot of issues,” said Emma in a recent interview with Cook Children’s via Zoom. “Sometimes it's hard to talk about things, but it's so much easier to write to get my feelings across.”

Emma is a long-time Cook Children’s patient. During one of her visits to the medical center several years ago, she stopped by the hospital’s Child Life Zone, which features a fully functional, industry standard recording studio. It was here she met recording studio producer Raymond Turner.

“Emma was one of those patients who could probably write a song every day,” Raymond said. “She had a great voice and played ukulele. So we started talking about the CD project, what it was going to be entitled, and why we wanted it to be called that.”

Each year, Raymond produces an album of songs written and/or performed by Cook Children’s patients. In 2018, the CD was called ‘We Rise’ and aimed to give patients a space to express their feelings about resiliency and overcoming hurdles. Raymond and Emma worked together to take her song, ‘Don’t You Know,’ from a simple tune she’d play from time to time, to a fully-produced track to be featured on the upcoming album.

“It took her a while to actually record it because we talked about every line,” Raymond explained. “I go, ‘Okay, what does that mean? Where did that come from?’ And I know her intent was really to shed light on what she had gone through and the pain of that, but also to let whoever that person was know that at this point, it's not going to affect her.”

Raymond and Emma’s shared goal was to make ‘Don’t You Know’ an empowering anthem to bring awareness to the issue of bullying. When ‘We Rise’ was released, Emma’s song was one of nine on the album. But the work wasn’t over yet. Soon, a new project began that would turn ‘Don’t You Know’ into a music video that would air on CLZ-TV, Cook Children’s 24/7 in-house TV network.

Bringing a song to life

Stella, 16, has been drawing ever since she can remember. She loves art, but wasn’t too keen on painting until she was stuck in a hospital bed at Cook Children’s.

During her stay, a resident artist with the Creative Artist in Residency Programme (CARPE) delivered a canvas and painting supplies to Stella’s room. The program, which focuses on therapeutic art, is designed to provide an artistic outlet to patients who may be feeling fear, anxiety or frustration due to their medical condition. Stella’s painting of her IV bags impressed the artist resident so much, she was invited to appear on CLZ-TV’s art show.

“I was sitting at my desk and I happened to look up and see this patient’s artwork on TV,” Raymond said. “I was like ‘That’s it, that’s the art.’ I knew I had to talk to her about this project.”

Stella eagerly agreed to help illustrate the music video for ‘Don’t You Know.’ She put Emma’s song on repeat and with the words and melody in her mind, got to work illustrating the featured character – a girl with brown hair and big blue eyes. It was a laborious process to draw the many different emotions portrayed in the song. After nearly a year of tedious work, Stella delivered the final artwork that would bring Emma’s song to life.

“I've never personally been bullied before, but whenever I listened to the song, it made sense. It definitely gave me a perspective and understanding of how bullying negatively affects people,” said Stella.

She hopes her art can help amplify the message that bullying is harmful and can leave lasting scars.

“If I could take her song, which I can tell how meaningful it is to (Emma), and do anything to enhance it, to give it a microphone or to make it shine, that would be enough for me,” said Stella. “It’s really satisfying to know that we’re leaving a mark on the world, even if I was a small part of it. It’s really comforting in a sense.”

Their combined efforts made for a first-of-its-kind music video for Cook Children’s. Though the gifted team in the Child Life Zone broadcast studio have made countless videos for CLZ-TV, never have two patients created both the music and the visuals. And even more intriguing, Emma and Stella never met until the project was complete and they were interviewed together via Zoom for this article.

“It’s been neat to see how patients who have never met can come together to work on the same project,” said Raymond. “You would have thought that Stella and Emma sat in a room together. There’s a seamlessness that you feel when you watch and listen.”

Despite their different experiences with bullying, both girls say they hope kids and parents alike can walk away from the video hearing the message loud and clear.

“I hope that people will be able to see the impact of bullying, because for me, it made me feel like I was nothing,” said Emma. “It made me feel like I was worthless and useless. Sometimes people forget that the person they're saying those things to have feelings, and what you say can be life changing.”

See the full story and video here.