'Ugliest Girl' Defies Tormenters in Clip From 'A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story'
“Things have been scary, things have been tough… I’ve had to deal with bullying a lot,” said Lizzie Velasquez — callously deemed “the world’s ugliest woman” by a mean-spirited YouTube user. She shared the sentiment in a 2013 TEDx talk that went viral. The 26-year-old’s speech was so influential that it became basis of a new documentary, A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story.
You can watch an exclusive clip above, showing some of the cyber-bullying directed against her and how Velasquez chose to respond. Only 60 pounds, Velasquez suffers from a rare, unnamed syndrome that keeps her from gaining weight. And only two people in the world are known to have it.
After the cruel YouTube video was seen by 4 million viewers, Velasquez mobilized, sharing in her famous TED talk: “In my mind, the best way that I could get back at all those people who made fun of me, who teased me, who called me ugly, who called me a monster, was to make myself better and to show them, you know what? Tell me those negative things and I’m going to turn them around and use them as a ladder to climb up to my goals.”
A Brave Heart debuted at SXSW earlier this year and lands in theaters, on demand, and on digital HD on Sept. 25.
See the poster for ‘A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story’:
