The story of Lizzie Velásquez – this is her today in 2024

Every person faces their own struggles when it comes to their looks and/or self-esteem.

It might be that you want to lose weight, or maybe you want to fix your teeth? There’s always something that you’d probably like to improve.

Well, every time I feel like I need motivation, I’ll always think about Lizzie Velásquez from Austin, Texas.

Lizzie was born with an extremely rare genetic disorder that prevents her from gaining weight, which in turn affects her appearance.

Being tormented can break any person’s heart and mind, but Lizzie was confident that these people wouldn’t be the ones prevailing. Today, she’s turned her life around and she’s now a global motivational speaker.

Lizzie Velásquez
Facebook / Lizzie Velásquez

Now, I want you, the person reading this, to take a moment to think back on your life at the age of 16. For me, there are plenty of memories from that time – both good and bad – but overall, it was a time when many things were changing. There were more hormones, emotions, and sometimes even mental challenges that you had to fight against.

Hate on the web

All in all, hopefully it was a good time in your life, as it was for me.

Now, pretend that at 16 years of age you were called “The Ugliest Woman/Man in the World”. Not only that, but there’s even a video of you with the text “The Ugliest Woman/Man in the World” attached to it. That video has hundreds of thousands of views, and in the comments, people are saying the worst possible things about you.

How would that make you feel?

Lizzie Velásquez
Facebook / Lizzie Velásquez

For Lizzie Velásquez, this was the tragic reality. She was teased throughout her school years – both in person and on the internet – and it could’ve so easily broken her.

But Lizzie had other plans. She decided to put all these negative vibes together and instead turn them into something positive. That’s why we love her dearly, and want to spread her inspirational story.

I will share this with my friends, and I’d love for you to do the same.

Lizzie Velásquez

Lizzie Velásquez was born March 13, 1989, in Austin, Texas.

At her birth, she weighed only 2 pounds and 11 ounces, and it was clear from the moment she was born that she looked different from the other babies at the hospital.

Being that small, Lizzie didn’t understand that she was different, since she’d always been just Lizzie. However, when she started kindergarden at age five, she realized straight away that something was off.

“To my family, I was just Lizzie. It was a big slap of reality for a 5-year-old. The other kids were scared of me, pointing at me, not wanting to sit with me,” she told Today. “I couldn’t process it. I wasn’t doing anything to them, so why was it happening to me? And I didn’t dare tell anyone.

“Finally, I told my parents and they said, ‘There is nothing wrong with you, you are just smaller than the other kids. You are beautiful and smart and can accomplish anything.’”

Lizzie Velásquez
Instagram / Lizzie Velásquez

Those words from her family still stick with her today, and it really is the truth. No matter how you look, you still have the ability to accomplish anything you want. For Lizzie, though, this would require strong mental toughness to get there. That, and the support from her parents.

Lizzie Velásquez – rare conditions

But we’ll get back to Lizzie and how she managed to come out strong and incredibly inspirational on the other side.

So what was it that made her look the way she does?

Well, 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. It’s so rare, in fact, that there are only three known cases in the world. Still to this day, it baffles experts.

Not only that, but the condition causes Lizzie to age faster than people without the disorder, and she’s also blind in one eye.

As early as kindergarden, Lizzie recieved comments from other kids. And these remarks continued throughout her childhood, with people labeling her face as “disgusting”.

“At the time, I thought everyone looked like me. I didn’t recognize or tell that they didn’t look like me,” she told the Daily Mail.

When Lizzie started high school, things got better. She realized that she had power over her own life, and her decision was made clear.

Horrible video on YouTube

She was always going to stay positive, be brave, and do all the activities that she wanted to do alongside her friends.

“It was scary, but I knew it would pay off,” Lizzie Velásquez explained. “I was staff writer for the school newspaper and took photos for the yearbook. I tried out for cheerleading. The uniforms were really cute and every time I wore it around the school, I felt like a superhero. I was more myself around my peers, the version of myself around my family.”

Things started to get better, and Lizzie’s confidence was great. Then, one day, her world collapsed.

While doing homework, she was scrolling on her computer and went onto YouTube. Suddenly, she saw a video about herself that would break her heart.

Someone had made a video about Lizzie, dubbing her “the world’s ugliest woman”. Worse, the video had millions of views, and some of the comments were truly terrible.

She couldn’t stop herself from reading the comments, with some people even saying that the world would be a better place if Lizzie took her own life. She read on, hoping that someone would come to her aid. Sadly, not a single comment did.

“Wanted to prove them wrong”

Lizzie felt like someone “was putting a fist through the computer screen and physically punching me.” She could barely believe what she was seeing.

It’s crazy to think about how thousands of people can sit behind their computers and torment a 16-year-old girl suffering from a severe illness. How do those people sleep at night?

This was the worst kind of hate, and it could’ve destroyed Lizzie. But once again, she picked herself up. In fact, she said that if she could, she’d send a thank you card and flowers to the person who created the video, because that video changed her life forever.

“I didn’t want to retaliate — it was a waste of time,” she said. “I just wanted to prove them wrong, I realized I could use it for the greater good.”

Lizzie was never going to let the haters win. She’d seen the worst possible things written and said about her, but still, she was determined to use it as fuel for the future Lizzie.

Lizzie Velásquez
Facebook / Lizzie Velásquez

She continued on to college, and at 23 she earned a Bachelors Degree in communication from Texas State University.

Inspirational TedTalk

In 2003, she was then invited to a TED Talk in Austin, and it went viral. Lizzie explained how hurtful the mocking had been, but at the same time, she wanted to give people another perspective, as she did for herself.

“For so long, I thought that what defined me was my outer appearance,” she said in the 2013 TED Talk, explaining that she used to fantasize about “scrubbing the syndrome” off her face.

“Something kind of clicked in my head,” she explained of the moment she saw that awful YouTube video. “Am I going to let the people who called me a monster define me? No, I’m going to let my goals and my success and my accomplishments be the things that define me.”

For most people, all this hatred would have been tough to endure. But Lizzie isn’t most people; she showed everyone how strong she really is. Over the course of her entire life, she has been forced to eat a high-calorie diet frequently to keep her body’s energy levels up.

Today, she’s 35 years old and a successful business woman who travels the world to lecture others on her illness, as well as her life story.

Lizzie Velásquez – today

“This is my purpose. This is what I’m meant to do for the rest of my life. I like to think that I’m not only telling my story, I’m telling everyone’s story,” Lizzie told the Daily Mail.

As of now, she has over 850,000 followers on her YouTube channel and uses it to give inspirational talks. Lizzie’s showed the haters that she’s stronger than them – and she’s much more successful today than they will ever be.

“You are beautiful and smart and can accomplish anything,” Lizzie said her mother and father used to tell her.

“They loved me in the face of so many unknowns.”

Even though Lizzie is a strong, inspirational and, well, incredible person, this year’s been tough for many reasons.

Lizzie Velásquez
Instagram / Lizzie Velásquez

The Covid-19 pandemic hasn’t helped, but she’s also getting picked on social media, especially on the app TikTok. Lizzie was the subject of an image that people were looking at and reacting to.

And the worst part was that it was a mother that had used her photo to prank a child into thinking that Lizzie was the teacher for the next school year.

The importance of respecting

In July, it became a horrible trend among parents, where they did a FaceTime call saying that Lizzie would be the child’s next teacher.

Lizzie was hurt, obviously, and rightly so. What kind of parent would do this to another person? What message does it send to their children? That this kind of hate is OK? Lizzie herself said it encourages children to react in an unfavorable way regarding the way people look.

“When kids are in school or whether they are out in public, it’s crucial to teach them the importance of respecting someone who doesn’t look like them,” Lizzie said, in a video posted on her social media accounts.

“Showing them a video might be a joke, but it can be something that shows a child if my mom or dad thinks it’s funny then it must be okay for me to laugh at as well,” she says. “I take great responsibility in the fact that now is the time time to do all I can to speak up for those who might not have a voice or for those who don’t know how to use theirs.”

“I knew in my gut my photo was going to be used,” she added. “After dealing with things like this for a while now, I can sense when this might happen.”

A true inspiration

Following Lizzie condemning the videos, many children instead started posting videos where they said how beautiful Lizzie was. Once again, the haters had lost.

Lizzie has been praised all over the world for her courage throughout her life. She’s written a best-selling book about her life and even been praised by former First Lady Michelle Obama.

Beauty comes from within your heart and soul. Lizzie, you are beautiful! We think her story is deeply inspirational, and we think that everyone should read about her to understand that anything is possible.

Please, share this story with friends and family if you think Lizzie is an incredible person!

My Twin Sons Stopped Talking After My MIL Spent the Weekend with Us – One Night, I Finally Heard Them Speak and Was Taken Aback

When my twins stopped talking after a visit from their grandmother, I thought it was just a phase. Therapists, doctors—nothing worked. Then, late one night, I overheard them speaking in hushed tones, their words unraveling a secret that shattered everything I thought I knew about my family.

It started with the whispers. Faint, and unclear murmurs coming from Jack and Will’s room. At first, I thought I was dreaming—after all, my twin boys hadn’t uttered a single word in months. But the moment I leaned against their door and heard Jack’s voice, clear and trembling, I froze.

Woman eavesdropping | Source: Midjourney

Woman eavesdropping | Source: Midjourney

“I can’t stay silent anymore. This will kill Mom when she finds out.”

Kill me? Find out what? My heart pounded as I strained to hear Will’s reply.

“But you heard Grandma,” he said. “Dad is handling it. And Vivian is waiting for us.”

Vivian? Who’s Vivian? And what on earth did Grandma say?

I didn’t storm in right away—not yet. I felt my legs weaken, every part of me screaming to fling the door open, to hold my boys, to demand answers. But something about the way they spoke, the weight of their words, stopped me cold.

Woman in deep thoughts | Source: Midjourney

Woman in deep thoughts | Source: Midjourney

To understand how we got here, you need to know this: my mother-in-law, Patricia, visited us exactly twice in ten years. The first time was right after Jack and Will were born.

The second time? Three months ago.

The boys adored her at first. They called her “Gram,” hung on her every word, and begged her to stay longer. And she did. But by the time she left, everything had changed. Patricia took them aside for one “private little chat,” and they haven’t spoken since—not to me, not to their dad, not even to each other.

Senior woman with her two twin grandsons | Source: Midjourney

Senior woman with her two twin grandsons | Source: Midjourney

Therapists, doctors, rewards, punishments—nothing worked. The boys remained silent, their once lively voices replaced by a void that felt like a constant shadow over our home.

Eventually, the specialists gave it a name: Temporary Mutism—a condition where a child might stop speaking, often triggered by shocking news or a traumatic event.

Then, last night, everything changed.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I pushed the door open.

As I entered, my twin boys, Jack and Will, sat on their beds, their backs stiff with tension. For a second, all I could do was stare. They had spoken. After months of suffocating silence, I’d heard their voices.

It felt surreal—like I was dreaming, or maybe losing my mind. My heart raced, caught between elation and dread. Elation because the silence was finally broken. Dread because of what I’d overheard.

Twin boys in their room | Source: Midjourney

Twin boys in their room | Source: Midjourney

“What are you two talking about?” I demanded, my voice trembling. The joy of hearing them speak was quickly replaced by unease. Jack flinched his entire body trembling. Will wouldn’t even look at me. They looked so small, so fragile, and yet so guilty.

Jack finally broke the standoff, his voice shaky and uneven. “Mom, we didn’t mean to… it’s not our fault… please forgive us.”

My heart cracked at his words. Forgive them? For what? My mind raced, struggling to understand. “Forgive you? What are you even talking about?”

Mother talking to her sons | Source: Midjourney

Mother talking to her sons | Source: Midjourney

Jack opened his mouth, then shut it again. He looked over at Will, who bit his lip and a moment later blurted out. “Grandma told us not to tell you… but she said we’re not really your kids.”

The world stopped. Not my kids? The words didn’t make sense. They echoed in my head, sharp and cruel, refusing to sink in.

“What?” I whispered, my voice barely audible. “What are you saying?”

“She said we’re not your kids,” Jack mumbled, his head hanging low. He looked as if he wanted to disappear.

“That’s ridiculous,” I said, louder now. “Of course, you’re my kids. Why would she say something like that? That’s… it’s insane.”

Mother talking to her sons | Source: Midjourney

Mother talking to her sons | Source: Midjourney

Jack’s wide, glassy eyes met mine. “I don’t believe it either, Mom,” he said, his voice breaking. “I mean… how could you not be our mom?”

My hands trembled as I knelt in front of them, cupping their faces. “Listen to me. Both of you. This is not true. I don’t care what Grandma said. You are my sons. Always.”

“But… what if she’s right?” Will whispered, his voice cracking.

I shook my head, swallowing back the lump in my throat. “No. We’re not entertaining that thought. I know how to put an end to this.”

Mother talking to her sons in their room | Source: Midjourney

Mother talking to her sons in their room | Source: Midjourney

Jack frowned, confused. “How?”

I stood up, forcing my voice to stay steady. “We’re doing a DNA test. We’re going to settle this once and for all. And when the results come back, we’ll prove her wrong. Okay?”

They nodded reluctantly, but I could still see the doubt lurking in their eyes. Whatever poison Patricia had poured into their ears, it wasn’t just a lie—it was a ticking time bomb. And I wasn’t going to let it tear my family apart.

A week later, the results came in.

A person holding an envelope | Source: Midjourney

A person holding an envelope | Source: Midjourney

I was calm—or at least, I convinced myself I was. The sealed envelope in my hand felt heavier than it should, but I didn’t hesitate. I had no doubts. This was just a formality to dispel the poison Patricia had whispered into my sons’ ears.

But when I tore the envelope open at the kitchen table and read the words, everything stopped.

0% related. No genetic match.

I froze, staring at the results.

Shocked woman staring at DNA results | Source: Midjourney

Shocked woman staring at DNA results | Source: Midjourney

I reread them, hoping something would change but there it was in cold, clinical letters. Jack and Will weren’t mine. My hands trembled, crushing the paper in my fists. It didn’t make sense. It couldn’t make sense. But it was there, undeniable.

By the time I reached Patricia’s house, my shock had been replaced by fury. I banged on her door so hard my knuckles ached. She answered almost immediately, her expression fading when she saw my face.

Senior woman standing in her doorway | Source: Getty Images

Senior woman standing in her doorway | Source: Getty Images

“You,” I scoffed, shoving the papers into her hands. “You did this. You’ve been poisoning my kids against me, and now this? A DNA test says they’re not mine? Start talking, Patricia. NOW.”

For the first time in years, she looked nervous. “I… I can explain,” she stammered.

“Then explain,” I snapped, my voice breaking. “Because right now, I’m about five seconds from losing it.”

“Sit down,” she said quietly, motioning to the couch. “You need to hear the truth.”

I didn’t sit. I couldn’t. My legs felt too unstable. “Say it,” I demanded, my voice shaking.

Senior woman confronted by her daughter-in-law | Source: Midjourney

Senior woman confronted by her daughter-in-law | Source: Midjourney

“When you gave birth… there were complications,” she began hesitantly. “You lost a lot of blood. You were unconscious for days. And… the babies didn’t make it.”

I froze. My body went numb. “What?”

“It was Daniel’s idea,” she rushed on. “There was another woman at the hospital. She gave birth to twins but didn’t want to keep them. He thought… we thought… it would be better for you. You wouldn’t survive losing them. Since I knew the surgeon, we made a deal.”

She continued, ” I convinced him to write that Vivian’s twins died while yours were okay and replaced them.”

Newborn twins in the hospital | Source: Midjourney

Newborn twins in the hospital | Source: Midjourney

My breath caught, tears blurring my vision. “You lied to me. You stole them—”

“We saved you,” she cut me off, her voice firm. “You had no idea. You loved them from the start. What difference does it make?”

What difference does it make? Her words slammed into me like a blow, leaving me gasping. Everything—my boys, my life—was built on a lie.

Patricia’s words hung in the air like smoke, choking me. My vision blurred as she continued her story, each word slicing deeper into me.

Woman in deep thoughts | Source: Midjourney

Woman in deep thoughts | Source: Midjourney

“Their biological mother found out,” Patricia said. “We don’t know how. Maybe the hospital records, maybe someone talked. But she tracked us down. She wanted to meet them—Jack and Will. Daniel and I refused, of course. We thought we could keep her quiet.”

“You thought?” I echoed, my voice barely above a whisper.

Patricia shifted uncomfortably. “She threatened to tell you. She was relentless. Daniel panicked—he thought if you found out, it would destroy you. So we decided to tell the boys instead. We thought they’d understand. That they’d keep quiet until we figured it out.”

Senior woman confronted by her daughter-in-law | Source: Midjourney

Senior woman confronted by her daughter-in-law | Source: Midjourney

“You told them?” My voice cracked, and I was suddenly on my feet, pacing the room. “You told my children—the only children I’ve ever known—that I’m not their mother? That some stranger is?”

“They had to know!” Patricia snapped. “Their biological mother wasn’t going away. She was blackmailing us.”

“And instead of telling me,” I interrupted, my fury spilling over, “you dumped that burden on two ten-year-olds and told them to stay silent?”

Patricia’s eyes hardened. “We didn’t have a choice. We did what was best for you, for them.

Senior woman talking to her daughter in law | Source: Midjourney

Senior woman talking to her daughter in law | Source: Midjourney

I laughed bitterly, tears streaming down my face. “Best for me? You destroyed them! Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

The pieces fell into place—the silence, the haunted looks, the cryptic whispers. Jack and Will had been carrying this terrible secret alone. No wonder they’d stopped talking.

At that moment, the front door swung open. Daniel walked in, his face falling as he saw the papers clenched in my hand. “You told her,” he muttered to Patricia.

“No,” I said, my voice steady now. “She didn’t tell me. The DNA test did.

Daniel froze. For the first time in years, I saw fear in his eyes.

Nervous man standing in the hallway | Source: Midjourney

Nervous man standing in the hallway | Source: Midjourney

I stepped closer, my voice trembling with rage. “You both lied to me. You stole my right to grieve, to make my own choices. And now you’ve put my boys through hell. I’ll never forgive you for this.”

Turning to Patricia, I added coldly, “But you’re wrong about one thing. I am their mother. I always have been. And you—both of you—will never come near them again.”

Jack’s voice cut through the silence. “Mom?”

I turned to see him standing in the doorway, tears in his eyes. “We told Grandma we’d never say anything. But… we don’t want to meet her. You’re our mom. That’s all that matters.”

My knees buckled, but I managed to pull him into a hug. “That’s all that’s ever mattered,” I whispered.

Mother hugging her son | Source: Midjourney

Mother hugging her son | Source: Midjourney

If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one too: We adopted a 4-year-old girl – A month later, she told me, ‘mommy, don’t trust daddy.’

This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided as “is,” and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.

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