Lizzie Velasquez Releases Anti-Bullying Documentary
Lizzie Velasquez has faced bullying at every stage of her life, but she decided to fight back and continued to win through a single YouTube video.
Velasquez, 26, in her life so far, has always believed that she was no different from any other child of her age. No matter, one could already tell the big difference by just a single look at her.
Velasquez, on Saturday 14th of March, has released a full documentary entitled A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez story, directed by Sarah Hirsh Bordo.
The documentary is about her amazing journey from becoming a victim to a hero for all the bullied people around the world. Through the documentary, she wants every girl to come forward and fight back.
She was born with a rare disease named congenital disease and has no body fat despite her 5' 2" frame. She has some characteristics similar to the people who suffer from progeria, including wrinkly skin and poor immune system and she is visually challenges as she is blind in one eye and the other doesn't have the perfect vision.
Velasquez’s condition affected others badly when one day, when she was looking for music in YouTube, she saw a video entitled "Ugliest Woman in the World." She felt humiliated as soon as she saw her own image on the screen.
Things turned worse for her, when she became an instant subject to trolls and online bullies who used to post painful remarks including, she should kill herself or why her parents didn't abort her from the beginning.
Such comments can break anybody and Velasquez also felt heartbroken and started living alone. But this didn’t last long, as she soon picked herself up and fought the bullies in the best way possible.
In 2013, she came forward and spoke confidently in the front of hundreds of children in TEDx Youth held in Austin, Texas and she also published books like Be Beautiful, Be You.
At present, Velasquez is a well known motivational speaker, who travels all around the country and speaks against bullying. She has even campaigned to the US Congress for the passage of what could be the first federal law against bullying.