Lizzie Velásquez has always had her own unique look that wasn’t similar to anyone else. Veláquez was born weighing in at 2 pounds 11 ounces due to her being stricken with Marfan syndrome, which doesn’t allow her to gain weight or accumulate fat. Her condition always causes her to age faster than the average person. Unfortunately, this has caused her to be blind in one eye as well.
Her condition caused her to become a victim of bullying when she was a child, to the point where some cruel children called her “disgusting”
Once she realized she was ‘different’, she explained to the Daily Mail – “At the time, I thought everyone looked like me. I didn’t recognize or tell that they didn’t look like me.”
The bullying continued to get worse as she got older. It became so bad that when she was 16-years-old, someone on Youtube had created a video about her, and called her “the world’s ugliest woman.” This torment caused her to go into a serious depression when she saw the video and read all of the comments that people were writing below.
Despite all of the negativity and the sadness she had felt, she decided to be better than all of those writing the comments and make something of herself and prove everyone wrong.
“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 explained further about her passion and career.
While bullying can easily pull anyone down, her perseverance and determination are truly remarkable! We can all learn a lot from her ability to continue fighting for her happiness and she is living proof that we can accomplish whatever we truly set our minds on.
