Lizzie Velasquez is not immune to bullying, but through a single YouTube video, she decided to fight back-and continues to win.
Velasquez, 26, grew up believing that she was no different from all the other children her age. However, a single look at her, and one could already tell the big difference. Born with a congenital disease so rare, Lizzie didn't have any body fat despite her 5' 2" frame. She shared some characteristics with people with progeria, including wrinkly skin and poor immune system. She is blind in one eye and the other doesn't have the perfect vision.
How her condition affected the others became even more obvious when, one day, while trying to search for music in YouTube, she saw a video entitled "Ugliest Woman in the World." She was mortified when she started seeing her own image on the screen. To make things even worse, she became an instant subject to trolls and online bullies who left painful remarks like how she should kill herself or why her parents didn't abort her from the beginning.
It's easy for someone to feel so heartbroken and lose all motivation, and sure enough, Lizzie found herself shutting the rest of the world. But she later picked herself up and fought all the bullies the best way possible.
In 2013, she spoke in front of hundreds of children in TEDx Youth held in Austin, Texas. She went on to publish books including Be Beautiful, Be You. She is currently a motivational speaker who travels all around the country speaking against bullying and has campaigned to the U.S. Congress for the passage of what could be the first federal law against bullying.
And she's just released a full documentary on Saturday, March 14, entitled A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story. Directed by Sarah Hirsh Bordo, this documentary covers her amazing journey from becoming a victim to a hero for all the bullied people around the world. Although she is the focus of her story, she believes that the message echoes for everyone.
Lizzie believes that being a bullying activist is her calling and that her greatest blessing is actually having the syndrome.