About the Hosts
About GiGi Gianni
GiGi was born on August 2, 2002 and has been changing the world ever since! She is the inspiration behind GiGi’s Playhouse Down Syndrome Achievement Centers (with 60 locations and startups, serving families in 36 countries!). GiGi travels to every GiGi’s Playhouse location, spreading her message of love, hope, and acceptance to all she meets. She is a very active high school student who works out daily, and participates in school plays, voice lessons, dance lessons, tutoring, and all the other things teenagers do! Her favorite past time is hanging with friends and family. This girl knows how to party! Her biggest accomplishment to date was singing the National Anthem at the Cubs game in front of 40,000 people at Wrigley Field in 2019! She memorized the words quickly, but worked for YEARS on the articulation of the words and to build her muscles up to project her voice. It was an amazing day Talk about #goals!
About Nancy Gianni
Nancy Gianni, Founder, and Chief Belief Officer of GiGi’s Playhouse is an author, motivational speaker, and most importantly, GiGi’s mom.
“My biggest fear in life is not giving GiGi, and all of our kids, a voice. God helped me build this incredible platform, and now we need to use it for change. When I started the first GiGi’s Playhouse, my husband freaked. He didn’t understand how we were going to offer free therapeutic and educational programs to individuals with Down syndrome, their families, and the community and not charge a cent. Honestly, I had no clue how I was going to do it either, I just knew it needed to be done. Seventeen years later, we have 60 GiGi’s Playhouses locations and startups, across the country and in Mexico, and serve families in more than 35 countries with free speech therapy, free literacy, math tutoring, fitness classes, career skills, OT, PT, and more! We found a way! (and I found lots of gray hair too!).”