WEST VALLEY CITY — A student at Hunter High School in West Valley City is set to perform in her school play with an all-special needs cast, and she's asking one of Utah's most beloved celebrity residents to come see her on the stage.
Despite having cerebral palsy, Katelyn Thornwall doesn't let it hold her back from being a fabulous student with a lot of passion. That becomes evident when it comes to her idol.
"Posty, I love you and this is your number one fan," she says.
You don't have to look too far to see how much Katelyn adores rapper and singer Post Malone. From the stickers attached to her wheelchair to her naming her wheelchair and the baby from her child development class after the musician.
And, of course, to her clothing.
"It has Posty's wonderful face on it," she said describing her t-shirt.
Katelyn was emotional Tuesday explaining Post Malone's impact on her life.
"He has saved me in a lot of different ways," she said. "When I first started listening to him, I was moving out here and he just turned that hard time for me from a hard time to a smile."
"He knows how to turn my bad days to a good day and I really appreciate it."
Seeing her love for Post Malone gave her teacher aide, Lynsay Carter, an idea to make a video inviting the superstar to see Katelyn perform in "Finding Nemo Jr."
"I would love to see you there, I really want to meet you, and I love you Posty," Thornwall says in the video.
Carter says she's gotten comments on the video on social media from as far away as Australia and beyond.
"There was one also that had posted, tagged Post Malone in some type of character writing. I don't know, it wasn't English, but I was like, just dumbfounded how many people had already seen this and how many people had tagged him in it," said Carter.
While there is no guarantee the award-winning artist will be able to make it to the performance or not, Carter felt it was worth a try.
"She just has some real dedication for him and I thought it would be special if we could get her name out there so that at least he would know who she is," the aide said.
For Posty and anyone else who wants to come support Katelyn and a great group of students, "Finding Nemo Junior' will take place at the school auditorium Dec 7-8 at 6 p.m.
