Lizzie Velásquez was born in Austin, Texas, in 1989, with such a rare syndrome that, as she herself said in 2013, only two other cases besides hers were known. Her condition prevents her from gaining weight: she never weighed more than 29 kilos. She is also blind in one eye. Since childhood, she was familiar with strangers’ stares and comments. But nothing prepared her for what she found at 17.
One afternoon, while searching for music videos on YouTube, she found one that was barely eight seconds long and had no sound, titled “The Ugliest Woman in the World”. It used images of her and had already surpassed four million views. Lizzie read the comments one by one. Strangers left cruel comments and told her she didn’t deserve to live.
Lizzie had two paths: let that screen decide who she was or decide for herself. She chose the latter.
She began telling her story in public, without hiding. In December 2013, she took the stage at TEDxAustinWomen and gave the talk “How Do You Define Yourself?”, which eventually surpassed 13 million views on TED.com. She later became a writer, speaker, and anti-bullying activist, taking her testimony even to the United States Capitol.
The video that tried to reduce her to an image ended up becoming the starting point for a voice the world would hear.
They tried to define her by her appearance. Lizzie spent the rest of her life proving that no one else can decide who you are.