LIZZIE Velasquez knows what it’s like to be hated simply for her appearance. In 2006, she found out she’d been dubbed the “ugliest woman in the world”.
LIZZIE Velasquez knows what it’s like to be hated simply for her appearance.
In 2006, the then high school student was casually scrolling through Youtube in search for a music video, when she stumbled across a clip that changed her life forever.
“It was a video titled ‘the world’s ugliest woman,’ and it was a video of me,” the 26-year-old told news.com.au
“I was crushed. You can imagine how I felt. I was confused, upset, hurt and angry — but then I read the comments.”
US teen Lizzie Velasquez, who weighs 27kg. She has a rare disorder that means she can’t put on weight, despite eating up to 8000 calories every day.
At just 17, Lizzie said it was the day she will never forget.
Suffering from a rare disorder known as Marfan Syndrome and Lipodystrophy, means Lizzie is unable to put on weight, it’s never been her health issues that have caused the most pain.
Going through the comments, Lizzie was overwhelmed by the attacks about her appearance.
“I sat there and read through the comments, and I was so desperate to find someone who had said something positive, but I didn’t,” she said.
“Some commented that I should do the world a favour and put a gun to my head, others asked why didn’t my parents abort me. One person even suggested people will go blind from looking at me because of my ugliness.”
One even suggested her parents to “kill it with fire”.
Lizzie Velasquez was told by one hater on Youtube to ‘kill herself’. Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images.
At the time, Lizzie felt broken. But instead of letting the four million views and thousands of negative commenters win, she turned the haters into motivators.
“I sat there for a few minutes, and panicked because I knew my parents [Lupe and Rita] were about to see this,” she said.
“I wanted to protect their feelings, and I didn’t want them to see what people were saying about me,” she said.
“I’d never met any of these people who said nasty things, but I’d still forgive them.
“If I were to ever meet someone who wrote one of those comments, I would hug them and ask them to find a way to get through whatever hurt they go through and not hurting anyone else in any other way.”
Lizzie documented her journey from cyberbullying to anti-bullying activist, in a film called A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story.
From nicknames like “skinny bones,” “grandma” or “pork chop legs,” to questions like, “why do you look like that? What’s wrong with your face?” the now 27-years-old admits the years of bullying as a kid because of her uncommon appearance were nothing compared to her online attacks.
“Sometimes I’m not emotionally or mentally in the right place, and so the comments — even now — really get to me,” she said.
“Sometimes I get these comments and brush them off and keep moving forward. At the end of the day, it’s all in my power how I allow myself to be impacted by these comments.”
Lizzie Velasquez didn’t let the haters win. Picture: Michael Buckner/Getty Images for SXSW.
Lizzie, who lives in Austin Texas, weighs just 27.5kg and is blind in one eye, responded to the haters by launching an anti-bullying campaign and subsequent documentary, titled “A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story”.
Velasquez first began speaking out against the hateful comments by uploading her own response videos to YouTube. In the clips, she held place cards to describe her feelings and then revealed her face at the end. From there, she started researching how to become a motivational speaker.
“I completely taught myself everything that I know about speaking via the internet and YouTube,” she told ABC America.
“I studied speakers’ websites. I studied if they walked which way across the stage. If they had note cards, if they had slide shows … Anything I could get my hands on, that’s what I would learn.”
Lizzie in her documentary, A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story.
The film, which has already won awards at eight different film festivals around the world, will be launched in Australia from today. The documentary follows her from cyber-bullying victim to anti-bullying activist, and details Lizzie’s physical and emotional journey in the lead up to her multi-million viewed TEDx talk, which she presented in 2013.
“I don’t think bullying will ever stop,” she said.
“If we can keep the conversation going, whether it’s through a teacher or a parent, rather than focusing on how we can stop it.
“People are bullying because they themselves are hurting. They are getting told the same thing, and then saying it to other people.
“I think that’s where the problem lies. We need to take a step back and look at the situation from both sides.”
Lizzie’s film, A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez story” will be released digitally from Friday through iTunes, Telstra Bigpond Movies, Google Play, Fetch TV, Sony PlayStation, Xbox or through www.imwithlizzie.com.au.