A
26-year-old who was once labeled the ‘ugliest woman in the world’
insists that she is actually thankful for the online bullies who cruelly
tormented her about her appearance, because they helped her get to the
great place she's in today.
Lizzie
Velasquez was born with neonatal progeroid syndrome, a rare genetic
disorder that gives her an aged appearance. It affects her face, muscle
tone, brain, heart, eyes, and bones, and also prevents her from gaining
weight - meaning that at 5'2", the Austin, Texas, resident is just
63lbs.
Lizzie
didn't know she was different until her first day of kindergarten, when
her classmates shrunk away from her. The other kids seemed afraid of her
appearance and would often point and refuse to sit with her - even
though she wasn't doing anything wrong.
'It was a big slap of reality for a five-year-old,' she said.
Her parents told her that she was just smaller than the other kids, but she was beautiful and could accomplish anything.
With
a loving family to back her up, things started to improve a bit as she
got older. She made an effort to remain positive, and even joined
after-school activities to make friends. She was on the school paper and
the cheerleading team, and as she put herself out there, her life got
better.
Until
one day, when everything changed. Lizzie was still in high school,
looking for music on YouTube when she stumbled across a video of
herself. In the comments section, anonymous strangers said terrible
things, labeling her the ‘ugliest woman in the world’ and slinging
hurtful insults. They called her a monster, said someone should 'kill
it' - meaning her - 'with fire', and asked why her parents didn't abort
her.
And though
she knew that the kinds of people who would write such awful things are
the lowest of the low, that didn’t stop their comments from hurting
Lizzie - especially because each and every one of them was negative.
'I
read every single comment thinking there would be one person to stand
up for me. Not one person said, "She's a child, leave her alone," or
"You don't know her story, why she looks like that,"' Lizzie recalled.
'I felt like someone was putting a fist through the computer screen and
physically punching me. I bawled my eyes out.'
ut while
most people would have trouble recovering from such a heart-wrenching
experience, Lizzie is not most people. In fact, she now says that she
would like to thank the person who first labeled her the 'ugliest woman
in the world, because he or she changed Lizzie's life.
Perhaps
because she had already overcome so much adversity, the young woman was
able to turn that cruelness into something good. Since then, she went
on to college, wrote a book, and became a motivational speaker and
anti-bullying activist - which was most famously seen in her
widely-watched in Austin that has been watched over eight million times to date.
'Even
though things are hard, I can't let that define me,' she said on the
TED stage. 'My life was put into my hands just like your life was put
into yours. You were put in the front seat of the car. You are the one
who decides if your car goes down a bad path or a good path. You are the
one that decided what defines you.'
Those
encouraging words clearly struck a chord with many people. Lizzie
explained to Today: 'I'm not sure what it was about the TED talk and
what I said in it, but it changed everything.'
'My story is everyone's story': 26-year-old with rare genetic
disorder who was once labeled the 'world's ugliest woman' insists she's
better off thanks to cruel bullies