Lizzie Velasquez, a 24-year-old motivational speaker and author, was born with an extremely rare medical condition that does not allow her to gain weight. She has 0% body fat and must eat once every fifteen minutes or so to sustain her energy.
Lizzie has been the subject of bullying because of her appearance since she first started attending kindergarten. The worst of it came more recently when some online bullies made a video labeling her "the world's ugliest woman" which received over four million views and to which some commenters responded asking Lizzie to "please, just do the world a favor: put a gun to your head and kill yourself." Instead of letting bullies like this tear her apart, she chose to define herself not by her condition, not by their hate, but by her own successes. In her own words, "I can't see out of one eye, but I can see out of the other. I might get sick a lot, but I have really nice hair."
Her perspective is so beautiful and inspiring, and her message is so simple: define yourself according to your own goals and your own successes. Don't let other people define you, because ultimately, their opinions don't matter.
Hear and share her story below. We only need 361,645 more views to reach four million.
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