She was only 16, when she received a terribly ugly nickname, “The Ugliest Woman in the World.” As it was tragic for Lizzie, it didn’t stop her from being the brave person she is today.
Lizzie Velasquez was born in 1989, Austin, Texas. She was only 2 pounds 11 ounces when she was born. She was also looking different from the rest of the babies in the hospital.
“To my family, I was just Lizzie. It was a big slap of reality for a 5-year-old. The other kids were scared of me, pointing at me, not wanting to sit with me,” she told in her interview.
“I couldn’t process it. I wasn’t doing anything to them, so why was it happening to me? And I didn’t dare tell anyone.”
“Finally, I told my parents and they said, ‘There is nothing wrong with you, you are just smaller than the other kids. You are beautiful and smart and can accomplish anything.’”
Velasquez was born with marfan syndrome and lipodystrophy, where she had problems in her heart, eyes, bones and with gaining weight. There are only three people in the world, who sharing the same condition with Lizzie.
Since she was a child, people called her “disgusting,” as they had no shame. “At the time, I thought everyone looked like me. I didn’t recognize or tell that they didn’t look like me,” Lizzie said.
But as she was a brave girl, Lizzie went to high school, and attended anything she can do. “It was scary, but I knew it would pay off,” she said. “I was staff writer for the school newspaper and took photos for the yearbook. I tried out for cheerleading. The uniforms were really cute and every time I wore it around the school, I felt like a superhero. I was more myself around my peers, the version of myself around my family.”
But one day, the world collapsed on her. As she was strolling on YouTube, she found herself in a video as the “ugliest woman in the world.”
Lizzie shared that she felt as if someone “was putting a fist through the computer screen and physically punching me.”
“I didn’t want to retaliate — it was a waste of time,” she added. “I just wanted to prove them wrong, I realized I could use it for the greater good.”
She was 23 when she had her Bachelors Degree in communication from Texas State University.
“For so long, I thought that what defined me was my outer appearance,” Lizzie said in her speech at the TED Talk in Austin. “Something kind of clicked in my head,” she added. “Am I going to let the people who called me a monster define me? No, I’m going to let my goals and my success and my accomplishments be the things that define me.”
Today, at the age of 35, Lizzie owns a successful business, and she is traveling the world. “This is my purpose. This is what I’m meant to do for the rest of my life. I like to think that I’m not only telling my story, I’m telling everyone’s story,” she shared.
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