"I'm Going to Let Myself Define Me"

The Extraordinary Story of Lizzie Velásquez

A Fragile Beginning

On March 13, 1989, in Austin, Texas, Rita and Guadalupe Velásquez welcomed a baby girl a month premature. Elizabeth Anne "Lizzie" Velásquez weighed just 2 pounds, 10 ounces. Doctors delivered a grim prognosis: the baby might never crawl, walk, or speak normally. She was later diagnosed with an extremely rare condition—Marfanoid-progeroid-lipodystrophy syndrome—so uncommon that only three confirmed cases have ever been documented worldwide.

The condition prevents Lizzie's body from accumulating fat tissue. Throughout her life, her weight has rarely exceeded 64 pounds. She is blind in her right eye and has limited vision in her left. She must eat every fifteen to twenty minutes—up to eight small meals a day—just to maintain enough energy to function.

Her parents refused to let the diagnosis define their daughter. They enrolled her in public school, encouraged her to participate in every activity, and repeated a simple mantra: "Your appearance does not define you. Your heart does."

The Video That Changed Everything

In 2006, seventeen-year-old Lizzie was browsing the internet when she stumbled upon an eight-second video featuring her photograph. The title read: "World's Ugliest Woman." It had already amassed over four million views.

The comments section was a cesspool of cruelty. Strangers told her to kill herself. They mocked her parents for allowing her to be born. They called for her to be set on fire.

Lizzie later recalled the moment in vivid detail: sitting at her desk, tears streaming, cursor hovering over the reply button. She wanted to fight back. She wanted to type something devastating. But then she stopped.

She remembered her mother's voice: "Your appearance does not define you."

In that moment, Lizzie made a decision that would alter the course of her life: "I am not going to let a stranger on the internet tell me who I am. I am going to let myself define me."

She set three goals:

Become a motivational speaker.
Write a book.
Never let that video define her.

Rising from the Screen to the Stage

Lizzie pursued a degree in Communication Studies at Texas State University. While still a student, she began speaking at local schools, churches, and community centers about bullying, self-worth, and resilience.

Her breakthrough came in December 2013, when she delivered a TEDxAustinWomen talk titled "How Do YOU Define Yourself?" Standing under the bright stage lights, she told the audience:

"I was once told that I was the world's ugliest woman. Instead of crawling under a rock and hiding, I decided to make a choice. I could let those people define me, or I could let my goals, my success, and my accomplishments be the things that defined me."

The video went viral—this time for all the right reasons. It has been viewed more than 56 million times on YouTube, making it one of the most-watched TEDx talks in history. The same internet that had tried to destroy her became the vehicle for her message of hope.

From Advocacy to Legislation

Lizzie's influence quickly expanded beyond the stage. In 2015, the documentary "A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velásquez Story" premiered at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin. Directed by Sara Bordo, the film chronicled Lizzie's journey from childhood bullying to national advocacy. It received widespread critical acclaim and brought her story to millions of new viewers.

That same year, Lizzie traveled to Washington, D.C. Working alongside U.S. Representative Frederica Wilson, she testified before Congress in support of federal anti-bullying legislation, specifically the Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA). Her testimony put a human face on the abstract statistics of cyberbullying.

Standing before lawmakers, Lizzie said:

"Typing 'kill yourself' to a stranger online is not a joke. I survived it. But there are children who did not survive it. We owe it to them to change the law."

Her advocacy helped galvanize national attention around the issue and contributed to ongoing legislative efforts at both federal and state levels to address cyberbullying and online harassment.

Four Books, Two Hundred Speeches, and Counting

By 2024, Lizzie Velásquez has authored four books, including "Lizzie Beautiful" (2010) and "Be Beautiful, Be You" (2012). She has delivered over 200 keynote speeches across the United States and internationally, speaking to audiences at schools, Fortune 500 companies, and nonprofit organizations.

Her social media presence—once the source of her deepest pain—has become a platform for daily encouragement. With more than 850,000 Instagram followers, she shares messages of self-love, faith, and perseverance.

Her mother, Rita, summed it up in a 2015 interview:

"The doctors said she would never walk. She didn't just walk. She ran. She flew."

The Question She Leaves with Every Audience

Lizzie Velásquez's story is not ultimately about a rare disease or a cruel video. It is about a question she poses to every audience she faces:

"What defines you?"

When four million strangers tried to answer that question for her, she refused their answer. She wrote her own. And in doing so, she gave permission to millions of others—children mocked on school buses, teenagers harassed on social media, adults still carrying the scars of old wounds—to write their own answers too.

The internet can be a brutal place. But Lizzie Velásquez proved something remarkable: even in the cruelest corners of the digital world, the brightest light can emerge.

As she once told her mother as a little girl:

"Mom, I can be a light for someone too."

Today, that light shines across continents, languages, and screens—reaching anyone brave enough to look. ✨

"I'm Going to Let Myself Define Me" — How Lizzie Velásquez Turned Internet Hate into a Movement of Love