Welcome to Inspirational Tuesday! On my Facebook, I recently posted the story of Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who saved 6,000+ Jews during the Holocaust. Many of you commented you had never heard of him, and it got me thinking: You know the Adam Lanza’s, the evil people of the world. Yet often, for some weird reason, the good people often go overlooked. Every Tuesday, I decided to balance it out by showcasing a courageous and inspiring person. Feel free to comment your requests.
“Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love… true love never dies.” -Hub, Secondhand Lions
I was recently scrolling through Pinterest when I came across the story of a unique woman named Lizzie. Elizabeth “Lizzie” Velasquez suffers an extremely rare disease that keeps her body from storing any body fat whatsoever.
This un-named disease is so rare that only two other people in the world are known to have this condition. Throughout each day, she must eat 5,000 calories in small portions to stay alive, and still cannot gain weight. She has never weighed more than 65 pounds her entire life. She is blind in her right eye and can get sick easily, as she does not have a good immune system. Born four weeks premature, she had complications with her birth, and doctors told her she probably wouldn’t be able to function normally. Born to loving and caring parents, she had no idea she was ‘different’ from other kids until kindergarten, when kids began bullying her. Puzzled, she asked her parents why kids were treating her rudely. Her parents explained her condition to her, and told her to hold her head high – so she did.
One day later as a teen in high school, she was scrolling the Internet procrastinating homework, and came across a video entitled “World’s Ugliest Woman.” Out of curiosity, she clicked the viral video that had accumulated over four million views and to her dismay, the video was a short clip of her. She was heartbroken, and thousands of comments poured in. “kill it with fire!” “Do the world a favor and kill yourself!”
Lizzie is now a motivational speaker and author. There are two ways that this young woman could have lived her life. She could live her life miserably, or she could do her best to live life to the fullest given her circumstances. Thankfully, she choose the latter. Velasquez has written two books, Choosing Happiness and Be Beautiful, Be You and has created a documentary film, A Brave Heart. You can watch her share her story on YouTube here. She truly is an amazing and inspiring human being, and simply proves true beauty is on the inside.
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I came across Lizzie on youtube, and her personality is so bubbly and gracious! I look up to her and thank you for writing about her. 🙂