Each of us has moments when we do not feel good in our skin and we do not trust ourselves. In those moments we want to change something, most of the time it is a change of physical appearance.
For example, some people want to lose weight, other people want a change of look, and other people want to make a change in their hair. We probably always want to improve or change something about ourselves, but sometimes these changes can be very difficult to achieve.
For example, we can consider the case of Lizzie Velásquez, who suffers from a rare genetic disease that affects her appearance. Lizzie can’t gain weight, and this can affect you emotionally and mentally.
However, in the beginning, we must learn to accept ourselves as we are and if we really want or need a change, then we must take things slowly and patiently to get the desired result in a healthy and sustainable way. Lizzie Velásquez decided to change her life.
Let’s think about how we were when we were 16 years old. This age can be very difficult because it is the age at which many changes take place and we are quite motivated. At 16, we care about what people say, and it affects us in a visible way.
At the age of 16, Lizzie was called “The Ugliest Woman in the World” and there was a video with Lizzie calling her that, and all the people had mean comments about her. This situation would be traumatic for each of them, regardless of our age.
This was the daily reality of Lizzie Velásquez, but somehow she managed to put aside the words of those around her and saw her own way in life.
Lizzie Velásquez was born on March 13, 1989, in Austin, Texas, and weighed only 2 pounds and 11 ounces when she was born.
Lizzie has always been a child far too young for her age, but she doesn’t realize that something is wrong with her body because she was just a child enjoying her life and couldn’t imagine how many people laughed at her. However, after the age of 6, she began to realize that something was wrong because everyone was looking at her and laughing.
At first, Lizzie didn’t tell her family what was going on at school, but the other kids laughed at her and no one wanted to spend time with Lizzie so she was always alone and unhappy. However, at one point he decided he needed to tell his parents how he felt.
Her parents were sad to find out what was going on in their little girl’s life, but they told Lizzie that there was nothing wrong with her, only that she was a little girl physically younger than the other children, but she was smart and can do whatever he wants.
Still, why does Lizzie look like that?
Lizzie was born with two rare conditions, Marfan syndrome and lipodystrophy. The rare genetic conditions affect her heart, eyes, and bones, and prevent her from gaining weight because of a problem with the way fat is distributed in her body. Lizzie is also aging faster than other children.
Fortunately, Lizzie always managed to stay positive and tried to ignore the words of others. She was a staff writer for the school newspaper and had made several friends. Everything seemed to be going very well until one day she discovered that there was a video with her on the internet. In the video she was called “the world’s ugliest woman”, and the filming already had millions of views. I think we can figure out how bad the comments were.
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Inspirational TedTalk
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Lizzie couldn’t believe that there are millions of people who can judge a 16-year-old girl who suffers from a severe illness just because of her physical appearance.
Fortunately, Lizzie is and always has been a strong woman, which is why she decided to show everyone that she can get what she wants from life, so she didn’t let anyone affect her emotionally.
When she turned 23, Lizzie earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication from Texas State University.
In 2003, she was invited to a TED Talk in Austin, and it went viral. Lizzie recounted how everyone laughed at her since kindergarten, and that at one point she thought only her physical appearance defined her. She said that when she saw the video about her, she realized that she did not have to let some bad and unknown people define her, but she had to follow her own dreams. Lizzie managed to show everyone how strong she is in spite of everything she had to endure.
Now she’s 33 years old and a successful business woman who travels the world to lecture others on her illness, as well as her life story.
Lizzie loves what she does and loves to help others not be defined by the people around them, but to trust them. Lizzie has always had the support of her parents, but some people are not so lucky, so she tries to inspire and help those around her.
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Unfortunately, even now there are people who laugh at her. For example, on TikTok, it became a horrible trend among parents, where they did a FaceTime call saying that Lizzie would be the child’s next teacher. This trend should scare children or make them laugh at their new teacher.
Lizzie has hurt again, but she decided to talk and said that every parent should teach their child to respect people and not judge them by their physical appearance because you can never know how the person next to you feels and what a hard life he/she has.
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Lizzie is truly an inspiration to all of us and we should learn from her not to judge others, but to always try to help and understand them because they do not choose to be in this situation and we must never forget that we can be in their situation at any time.
