Lizzie Velásquez Explained

Lizzie Velasquez
Birth Name:Elizabeth Ann Velásquez
Birth Date:13 March 1989
Birth Place:Austin, Texas, U.S.
Occupation:Motivational speaker
Known For:Public speaking, anti-bullying activism, public appearances, and book authorship
Parents:Rita Borja Velásquez
Guadalupe Fonsi Velásquez
Alma Mater:Texas State University

Elizabeth Anne Velásquez (; born March 13, 1989) is an American motivational speaker, activist, writer, and YouTuber. She was born with an extremely rare congenital disease called Marfanoid–progeroid–lipodystrophy syndrome that, among other symptoms, prevents her from accumulating body fat and gaining weight. Her conditions resulted in bullying during her childhood. During her teenage years, she faced cyberbullying, which ultimately inspired her to take up motivational speaking.[1] [2]

Early life

The eldest of three children born to Rita and Guadalupe Velásquez,[3] Lizzie was born on March 13, 1989, in Austin, Texas.[4] She was born four weeks prematurely and weighed less than 2 pounds 11 ounces (1,219 grams).[5]

Velásquez studied at Texas State University[6] until late 2012, majoring in communication studies.[7] She is a Roman Catholic and has said of her faith, "It's been my rock through everything, just having the time to be alone and pray and talk to God and know that He's there for me."[8] [9] [10]

Condition

Velásquez's condition is a extremely rare, previously undiagnosed, and non-terminal genetic disorder.[11] Her condition bears similarities to many other conditions, especially progeria. Medical researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center previously speculated that it may be a form of neonatal progeroid syndrome (NPS) (Wiedemann-Rautenstrauch syndrome), which does not affect Velásquez's healthy bones, organs, or teeth.[12]

Velásquez is medically unable to gain weight, which is a hallmark of her extremely rare disorder.[13] She has never weighed more than 29 kg (64 lbs), and reportedly has almost 0% body fat.[14] Moreover, she is required to eat many small meals and snacks throughout the day, averaging between 5,000 and 8,000 calories daily. Additionally, she is blind in her right eye, which began to cloud over when she was four,[15] and she is vision-impaired in her left eye.[16]

Around 2015, it was revealed that Velásquez and another woman named Abby Solomon, with a similar but less severe variant of the condition, have mutations in the FBN1 gene, which encodes the proprotein of the novel hormone asprosin, and that this mutation results in asprosin deficiency and is responsible for their conditions.[17] [18] The condition is specifically called Marfanoid-progeroid-lipodystrophy syndrome, or simply Marfan lipodystrophy syndrome.[19] [20]

Career

Ever since she was dubbed the "World's Ugliest Woman" in a video posted on YouTube in 2006, when she was 17, Velásquez has spoken out against bullying. In January 2014, she gave a TEDxAustinWomen Talk titled "How Do YOU Define Yourself",[21] and her YouTube videos have received over 54 million views.[22] She is known for her optimism. For in 2015, she hosted a social media challenge for Bystander Revolution's Month of Action.[23]

Her first work, co-authored with her mother, Rita, is a self-published autobiography published in 2010 in English and Spanish.[24] It is called Lizzie Beautiful: The Lizzie Velásquez Story, and includes letters Velásquez's mother wrote to her as a child.

Velásquez has also written two books directed at kids, which share personal stories and offer advice. Be Beautiful, Be You (2012) shares her journey "to discover what truly makes us beautiful, and teaches readers to recognize their unique gifts and blessings".[25] The book is also available in Spanish as Sé bella, sé tú misma (2013).[26] Another book, Choosing Happiness (2014), talks about some of the obstacles Velásquez has faced and how she "learned the importance of choosing to be happy when it's all too easy to give up".[27] Both books were published by Liguori Publications, a Redemptorist publishing house.

Dare to be Kind, first published in 2017, is about the importance of being kind, gleaned from her firsthand experience being bullied, both personally and online.[28]

A documentary film titled A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velásquez Story premiered at SXSW on March 14, 2015.[29] The movie aired on Lifetime on October 17, 2016.

Velásquez began starring on her own Fullscreen original series titled Unzipped since April 2017.[30]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Once bullied, now empowered, Lizzie Velasquez lobbies Capitol Hill. .
  2. Web site: Anti-bullying activist Lizzie Velasquez will share story of her journey. April 7, 2017. Brentwood Home Page. en-US. January 16, 2019.
  3. Web site: 'Ugliest woman in the world' teaches about true beauty (September 19, 2012 by Paloma Corredor; published on voxxi.com) . February 7, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130314222712/http://www.voxxi.com/ugliest-woman-in-the-world-true-beauty/ . March 14, 2013 . dead .
  4. Web site: Myheritage.com . Texas Birth Record search for Elizabeth Velasquez . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140111072411/http://www.familytreelegends.com/records/txbirths?c=search&first=elizabeth&last=velasquez%2B&spelling=Exact&11_year=1989&11_month=3&11_day=13&4=&14=&SubmitSearch.x=23&SubmitSearch.y=16 . January 11, 2014 .
  5. Web site: Lizzie Velásquez . www.goodreads.com . September 8, 2020 . birth_weight.
  6. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/texas-woman-gain-weight-bullied/story?id=17228529 Texas Woman Can't Gain Weight, Bullied Over Looks
  7. News: Lizzie's Story. Allen Reed. December 3, 2009. University Star. December 17, 2016.
  8. Web site: 'World's Ugliest Woman' Proves That Jesus Makes All Things Beautiful. Walker. Ken. December 31, 2013. Charisma. en. June 28, 2016. Raised in the Catholic parish where both her parents work, Velasquez's decision to follow Christ came near the end of high school. She credits her faith with enabling her to endure everything from scorn to physical infirmities. "It's been my rock through everything, just having the time to be alone and pray and talk to God and know that He's there for me," she says..
  9. Web site: Lizzie Velasquez, Once Labeled World's Ugliest Woman, Using Faith in Jesus to Spread Message of Love and Tolerance (VIDEO). Collier. Myles. January 7, 2014. The Christian Post. en. June 28, 2016.
  10. Web site: Lizzie Velasquez. Hart. Lucinda van der. 2014. Premier Christianity. en. June 28, 2016. I was born and raised in the Catholic faith and my parents have always been very involved in church and volunteering. It was always my dad's way of wanting to say to God, 'We will be as close as we can with you, volunteer and do what we can, as long as you help keep Lizzie healthy.' And so we did that our whole lives..
  11. News: Hartenstein. Meena. Lizzie Velasquez, 30-year-old with undiagnosed genetic disorder, must eat 60 times a day to survive. New York Daily. June 23, 2013. New York.
  12. Web site: Girl Must Eat Every 15 Minutes: Lizzie Velasquez Stays Skeletal Despite Nonstop Eating . CBS News . June 29, 2010 . March 14, 2015 . Freeman, David.
  13. http://www.today.com/id/38105383/site/todayshow/ns/today-today_health/t/meet-woman-who-cant-gain-weight-shes-pounds/ Meet woman who can't gain weight: At 21, she's 60 pounds
  14. Web site: The girl who must eat every 15 minutes to stay alive . The Telegraph . June 28, 2010 . Lizzie Velasquez weighs just four stone and has almost zero per cent body fat but she is not anorexic. [...] Despite consuming between 5,000 and 8,000 calories daily, the communications student, has never tipped over 4st 3lbs..
  15. http://shine.yahoo.com/beauty/lessons-worlds-ugliest-woman-stop-staring-start-learning-184400606.html Lessons from the 'World's Ugliest Woman': 'Stop Staring and Start Learning'
  16. Web site: Velasquez. Lizzie. About Lizzie.
  17. Bordo, Sara (Director); Campo, Michael (Writer); Velasquez, Lizzie (Star) . 2015 . A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story . 45:50 to 50:36 .
  18. Web site: Kennedy . Pagan . The Thin Gene . The New York Times . November 25, 2016 . May 22, 2017.
  19. Graul-Neumann LM, Kienitz T, Robinson PN, Baasanjav S, Karow B, Gillesen-Kaesbach G, Fahsold R, Schmidt H, Hoffmann K, Passarge E . Marfan syndrome with neonatal progeroid syndrome-like lipodystrophy associated with a novel frameshift mutation at the 3-prime terminus of the FBN1-gene . Am. J. Med. Genet. . 152A . 2749–2755 . 2010 . 11 . 10.1002/ajmg.a.33690 . 20979188. 26408208 .
  20. Jacquinet A, Verloes A, Callewaert B, Coremans C, Coucke P, De Paepe A, Kornak U, Lebrun F, Lombret J, Pierard GE, Robinson PN, Symoens S, Van Maldergem L, Debray FG . Neonatal progeroid variant of Marfan syndrome with congenital lipodystrophy results from mutations at the 3' end of FBN1 gene . Eur. J. Med. Genet. . 57 . 5 . 230–234 . 2014 . 24613577. 10.1016/j.ejmg.2014.02.012 .
  21. Web site: How do you define yourself? - Lizzie Velasquez at TEDxAustinWomen . TED . https://web.archive.org/web/20160809045221/http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/How-do-you-define-yourself-Lizz . August 9, 2016 . live.
  22. Web site: Lizzie Velasquez . YouTube (website report of video views) . https://web.archive.org/web/20161025221407/https://www.youtube.com/user/lizzitachickita/about . October 25, 2016 . live .
  23. Web site: Lizzie Velasquez's Challenge: Born Beautiful. Bystander Revolution. April 20, 2016. October 22, 2015.
  24. Web site: Lizzie Beautiful. www.goodreads.com. February 22, 2019.
  25. Web site: Velasquez. Lizzie. Be Beautiful, Be You. Liguori.org. Liguori Publications. April 7, 2015.
  26. Web site: Velasquez. Lizzie. Sé bella, sé tú misma. Liguori.org. Liguori Publications. April 7, 2015.
  27. Web site: Velasquez. Lizzie. Choosing Happiness. Liguori.org. Liguori Publications. April 7, 2015.
  28. Web site: Dare to Be Kind: How Extraordinary Compassion Can Transform Our World. publishersweekly.com. PWxyz, LLC. November 6, 2017.
  29. Web site: 'Bullies called me the world's ugliest woman online' . BBC News . March 14, 2015 . March 14, 2015 . Hawkins, Kathleen.
  30. Web site: No More Bullying: Lizzie Velasquez Has New Show About Body Positivity. Rare Disease Report. February 22, 2019.

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