Sandy Hook Promise gives a new, somber meaning to Katy Perry’s 2010 hit “Teenage Dream” in a PSA released Monday (Sept. 13) that raises awareness about school gun violence.
Sandy Hook Promise — a nonprofit organization based in Newtown, Ct., and founded by family members of loved ones lost in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Dec. 14, 2012, that killed 20 children and six adult staff members — organized the PSA. The two-minute, 31-second stirring visual features multiple teenagers who are survivors of various school shootings over the last 10 years, solemnly reciting Perry’s original lighthearted lyrics about the joys of growing up and poignantly reminds viewers that gun violence took that away from them following the shootings at Chardon High School in 2012, San Bernardino’s North Park Elementary School in 2017, Rockford’s Freeman High School in 2017, Draffenville’s Marshall County High School in 2018, Sante Fe High School in 2018, Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 and Santa Clarita’s Saugus High School in 2019.
“#TheTeenageDream is not what it used to be. Watch our PSA, a new version of @KatyPerry’s song ‘Teenage Dream,’” the Sandy Hook Promise account tweeted while warning that the video contains sensitive content related to gun violence that can be triggering.
Sandy Hook Promise works to “end school shootings and create a culture change that prevents violence” through their informational Know the Signs program and bipartisan school and gun safety legislation, according to the “Teenage Dream” page on its official website.
“For too many kids, The Teenage Dream is shattered by school shootings. Gun violence shouldn’t be part of growing up,” the pop superstar wrote on Twitter while sharing the video.
Perry’s “Teenage Dream” was originally released as the second single from the album of the same name, which was released in 2010 via Capitol Records. The Grammy-nominated, multiplatinum hit song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Watch the Sandy Hook Promise PSA, featuring the new version of Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” below.
