Lizzy Velasquez is an American woman who suffers from a strange disease that only two other people in the world suffer from besides her. She is a happy, charming woman with a big heart and a great capacity to love, but she has had to suffer all kinds of mockery for not being physically graceful because of her illness.

Today it is known worldwide for exposing to the world what it has had to suffer, and it has become popular for telling is one of those motivational stories that reach the depths of the soul.

Who is Lizzy Velasquez

Lizzy Velasquez was born in Austin, Texas (United States) in a family of three sisters, of which she is the oldest. She was born prematurely at 8 months of gestation. At the age of 23 her illness was recognised, just as she was about to graduate with a degree in communication .

Lizzy has used her knowledge in this area to bring to the world what she considers to be a blessing: her illness. With an ironic tone, she gives lectures exposing her problem and relating how people have laughed at her.

To learn more about it, you can watch the video below.

Your illness

Lizzy suffers from a rare disease, which only three people in the world suffer from (including her). This pathology does not allow her to gain weight, and her body fat level remains at 0%. In fact, she has never weighed more than 30 kg. She is blind in her right eye and has limited vision in the other .

In terms of physical appearance, it is similar to that of a person with progeria and gives an image of an aging woman. According to her, doctors told her mother that she would not live long but her state of mind is such that she is still alive and kicking. Researchers at the University of Texas Southeastern Medical Center think her condition is similar to progeria but does not attack her bones, organs or teeth, and it is not hereditary.

An example to many

The curious thing about Lizzy’s case is how she has been able to turn the situation around . Not only because of the consequences that this disease has for her on an organic level, but also because of how we human beings can be so cruel and harmful with our comments and our attitude of rejection.

In one of her lectures, Lizze told that one day, while surfing the internet, she came across a youtube video in which she was named as "the ugliest woman in the world". Instead of crying as she tells it, she admits that she is not an attractive woman and that many do not know that her ugliness is part of her illness.

His noble heart does not allow him to hold a grudge against those people who have used easy laughter to make fun of it, and in fact, he uses all his energy to encourage people with problems to accept the situation and enjoy this life which, although we often forget, we can only enjoy once.

Takes his illness with humour

Lizzy, as a good communicator, knows that a sense of humor captures the audience, and in her lectures she makes the audience have fun. You may feel sorry for her the first time you see her (if you don’t know her yet), but the reality is that she recognizes that it is a blessing to suffer from her illness.

With my disease I can eat all I want (fries, hamburgers, chocolate) and I never get fat,” he says. She also jokes that gyms should hire her as their image, because she can be used as a model to show that their weight-loss workouts work.

There is much that we humans have to learn from her, especially those who have laughed at her physical appearance.

The discrimination ugly people have to endure…

Unfortunately, we live in a world where people who are attractive or unsuccessful are often forgotten and even abused. Being ugly can make a person experience a number of obstacles in life and can make them suffer from a number of discriminatory attitudes that they have to endure, as in the case of Lizzy.

In fact, there are different types of discrimination, as you can see in our article “The 16 types of discrimination (and their causes)”, and one of them is discrimination based on physical appearance.

But, what discriminatory attitudes do ugly people suffer? In general, people who are considered ugly…

  • They make less money than the good-looking ones, as research conducted by the University of California claims. According to the results, they earn 12% less on average than the handsome individuals
  • They have fewer job opportunities. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by Ze’ev Shtudiner and Bradley J. Ruffle of Ariel University in Israel and the University of Ontario in Canada respectively.
  • They are more prone to bullying and mobbing. This was proven by researchers at Michigan State University and the University of Notre Dame (USA).
  • They are less remembered, says Michael Baker of the American University of East Carolina in his research published in the scientific journal Evolutionary Psychology.
  • They are seen as talkers and not objects of desire, so they have less opportunity to flirt.
  • They receive less help, as shown by many investigations, one of which was published in the magazine Frontiers in Neuroscience.
  • They go unnoticed at social events and often remain in the background.

You can find out more about these discriminatory actions in our article: “Ugly” people must put up with these 8 discriminatory attitudes”