Photo: https://www.facebook.com/LizzieVelasquez/photos/pb.132587973438536.-2207520000.1426510683./742758882421439/?type=3&theater
How a woman becomes strong through bullying
Lizzie Velásquez turned 26 on March 13th. That she experiences this day at all, testifies to strength. Almost ten years ago, thousands of bullies wished her dead.
Children can be cruel. Elizabeth Ann Velásquez, as Lizzie is called by her real name, had this experience from an early age. Whether in kindergarten, at school or on the street: Everywhere she is excluded, insulted, bullied. Those who did not bring her down pitied her.
At the age of 17, when Life's Peers are all about chic hairstyles, hip clothes, and pretty make-up, Lizzie discovers a video on YouTube called "The Ugly Woman in the World . " What she does not know before clicking: This video will not only change her life, but also strengthen many people who have ever been bullied .
When Lizzie Velásquez watches the video, she is speechless. In the video to see: herself. It has been commented numerous: She is a monster, they should burn them, torture, they should take their own life, shoot themselves. Even her parents were pilloried: A user asks why they would not have aborted the ugly child.
What the bully did not know: Lizzie suffers from a rare disease since birth - as doctors at least suspect. Knowledge, they do not do it. However, the preliminary diagnosis is: Neonatal Progeroides Syndrome, NPS for short. There are only two other people in the world who have similar symptoms to this incurable disease.
Lizzie is 1.60 meters small and fragile, has neither muscle mass nor adipose tissue. She can not gain weight, only 29 kilograms. Their BMI is 10.9 - the BMI of a healthy person, however, between 20 and 25. Lizzie's skin is thin, it ages faster, is wrinkled. In the right eye Lizzie is blind, on the left she sees only bad.
Often people with this disease are also mentally retarded. Lizzie not. On the contrary: The Texan went to college, studied communications science and wrote along the way three books, including the guide "Be beautiful, be yourself" and the autobiography "Lizzie Beautiful". The (provisional) climax: A documentary about her titled "A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story" - on Saturday, the film premiered in Lizzie's hometown of Austin, Texas.
But how did Lizzie manage to stay strong despite bullying ? "If a child is repeatedly marginalized, insulted, and devalued, it can seriously affect self-esteem, and the victims begin to internalize what is said about them, and this type of negative thinking favors the development of anxiety disorders and depression, " says Gerd Schulte. Körne of the German Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy (DGKJP) in Berlin towards welt.de. Bullying victims often become anxious, insecure and lonely.
Even Lizzie did not let the mobbing cold. "I cried for nights when I saw the video - as a teenager, I thought my life was over now, " Lizzie told the BBC. "I could not talk to anyone about it, I was so shocked, " she recalls. But she did not give up her life.
Lizzie owes much to her parents' upbringing. From an early age she was teased at school - her parents cheered her every day to think positively, not to let her head down. So she went through life: always smiling, with head held high, friendly to everyone. Nine years after the YouTube video, she even forgave the person who published it . "I do not know what that person had to go through in life, " says Lizzie, explaining her goodness. "My life is often tough - but maybe this person has a much harder life than me."
In addition, she brought this video on the idea to produce their own You Tube Channel. To show the millions of people watching the video about the 'World's Ugly Woman' who's hiding behind this exterior. And to show that everyone can be confident and comfortable in their skin - no matter what he looks like.
Since then, millions of people are looking up to the little woman. She has countless followers on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, as well as running her own website, where she motivates people not to be bothered by mobbing. Many wrote that she was encouraging them. Together with Tina Meier, a woman whose daughter took her life because she was bullied, she is now fighting for an 'anti-bullying law'.
One day, film producer Sara Hirsh Bordo became aware of her. By June 2014, she had crowdfunded $ 180, 000 - from people around the world - to make a documentary about Lizzie. The film aims to show that bullying can not only produce victims, but also heroes.
"I'm not telling my story in it. I tell everyone's story, "says Lizzie in the movie preview. Lizzie has emerged stronger from all the bullying attacks. With her, the comments on the Internet videos have changed. A user writes: "Thank you, Lizzie, you are the definition of true beauty, inspiration and courage."
