Community
24 December, 2023
Gifted Gia in TV role
SEVEN-year-old Gia Smith has starred in this year’s Woolworths Christmas advertisement.
Featuring as one of the mangoes, Gia put on a star performance with her fellow castmates.
The content follows the journey of school children dressed to represent fresh food from across regional Australia, including cherries from Young, NSW and mangoes from Dimbulah as they venture to perform in a Christmas spectacular for their family and friends. When one child forgets their costume enroute, the children and a few parents band together to help make a spectacular Christmas cracker costume just in time for the show.
Christmas is Gia’s favourite time of year. She was super excited to be in the Woolworths Christmas campaign and enjoys pointing herself out on the TV, 13 seconds after all the mangoes are boarding the train.
“The best part of being a part of the experience for me was dressing up as a big mango and feeling like a celebrity,” she said.
“It was amazing to be around such a professional film crew and to watch them in action from the first audition to filming was a wonderful experience.”
But this wasn’t the first time Gia has crossed paths with Woolworths. Gia was diagnosed at just two-years-old with T-Cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 2018. She spent several months as an inpatient at Queensland Children’s Hospital where she was regularly visited by volunteers who delivered books and blankets.
Gia has always enjoyed music and dancing – ballet, tap, jazz and musical theatre. While in hospital, she particularly enjoyed music therapy, which was funded by the Children’s Hospital Foundation, Woolworths’ state charity partner in Queensland.
Gia, of Walkamin, has been in remission for the last three years and has big plans to continue her dancing in the future.
A Woolworths spokeswoman said: “We are so proud of Gia and all the children who starred in our Christmas ad this year. We know it’s the little things that make Christmas special, and hearing about Gia’s story while filming was phenomenal for all of the crew.”
