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This Baby Had a Skull Defect, so His Dad Designed Absurdly Cute ‘Star Wars’ Helmets
After his son was diagnosed with health issues that required him to wear a helmet, the boy’s father came up with an incredibly creative solution.
Jack Moxey was only two months old when he was diagnosed with craniosynostosis, a birth defect that affects the bones of the skull. If left untreated, the condition could have altered the development of young Jack’s brain. A surgical procedure was able to correct the issue, but at the price of the boy being required to wear a helmet for the first year of his life.
The boy’s father, Jonathan Moxey, wanted to do something to differentiate the helmet, eventually settling on painting Star Wars designs on them, as he was a lifelong fan of the franchise. He told Popsugar, “If we were going to be doing this anyway, we might as well have fun, right?”
The boy’s parents (Jonathan and wife Lauren) also had a secondary motive for wanting to add designs to the helmets, thinking they would sway questions away from their son’s condition. “We thought they’d look fun, and it changes the comments from strangers to, ‘What happened to your kid?’ to ‘Oh, cool helmet!’”
Jonathan began working on the first design while his baby slept, eventually completing a design based on the droid R2-D2.
Next up was a design based on Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing pilot helmet from the original film.
From there, Moxley delved further into the series’ canon. First, came a design based on Skywalker’s childhood friend and fellow rebel pilot Biggs Darklighter.
The fourth and final design was even more obscure, based on the helmet of briefly seen pilot Jed Porkins.
The Star Wars designs went viral after Jonathan shared them on his Instagram account, with many praising the project and sending well-wishes to the boy. Luckily, once Jack hit his first birthday he was given a clean bill of health and was no longer required to wear the helmets.