https://www.youtube.com/user/lizzitachickita
Lizzie Velasquez is a 26-year-old woman living in Austin, Texas. She has a condition that only a handful of other people in the entire world have that makes it impossible to gain weight: she has never been over 64 pounds in her entire life. As a result of her health issues, some of her physical features give her a unique appearance, and she is blind in one eye.
Due to her unusual look and the stigma with being different, an 8-second YouTube video titled “The World’s Ugliest Woman” showed images of Lizzie to millions a few years ago, and many of the comments were particularly nasty. People urged her to end her own life and suggested wearing a bag over her head when she went out in public. While Lizzie was initially devastated when she stumbled across the video, her family (whom she is very close with) supported her, her father encouraged her to forgive the person that made the video, and she harnessed her frustration into becoming an advocate for other young people getting bullied online. She’s written three books; she emphasizes that everyone is beautiful and people can choose to be happy. She also graduated college with a degree in communications. It is clear Lizzie is not only winning her battle against bullies, but also helping other people with their issues.
Lizzie gave a powerful TEDx talk in the end of 2013 about beauty and happiness and how we define ourselves. A documentary about Lizzie, “A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velazquez Story”, is now available on iTunes and also in theaters as of September 2015. It won numerous awards at film festivals and currently has a 7.3 rating on Imdb. It was produced and directed by a talented woman named Sara Bordo with the team at Women Rising. The movie contains interviews with her family members, shows clips from some of her speeches, then follows Lizzie to Washington, DC as she fights to pass a bill against bullying in schools. In my opinion, this film flowed very well and was not just a bunch of random interviews and moments from this young woman’s life: it built and left a powerful message about treating other people with respect and the importance of following one’s dreams. Lizzie is Christian and her books contain elements of religion, but there was not much religion emphasized in the movie. If you are interested in learning more about Lizzie, her YouTube channel features life updates, makeup tutorials, analysis about a plethora of topics, and adventures she goes on with her friends and family members. It’s actually one of the most candid and interesting vlog channels I’ve ever seen. This young woman seems like the sweetest and the most genuine person. In early 2015 she got a cute white puppy named Oliver so that’s another good reason to check out her videos.
It’s nearly impossible to miss the irony of this whole situation: the woman that was bullied on YouTube for her appearance starts a channel on the same platform and succeeds massively. Now, with nearly 500,000 subscribers, an extremely popular film that was funded through Kickstarter, lots of celebrity support (iJustine helped create the movie and was in the credits is just one example and her video for Kickstarter had many more), and frequent speaking engagements, it seems like there’s no stopping Lizzie and her message against bullying. Now the real question is how much of a tangible impact will this have in the anti-bullying legislation as well as online bullying for teens or even younger children? Time will tell. But the fact of the matter is this one person is doing a ridiculous amount of good despite the emotional struggles that she has faced, and despite the physical pain and procedures she’s experienced. I highly recommend the documentary for people interested in anti-bullying, but also anyone that feels stuck in his or her own life: when we compare our challenges with Lizzie’s, I predict that excuses about why we can’t achieve our goals quickly fall to the side.
