How Do YOU Define Yourself Lizzie Velasquez at TEDxAustinWomen

Summary

Lizzie Velasquez shares her inspiring journey and the power of defining oneself beyond physical appearance. Despite being born with a rare syndrome that prevents her from gaining weight, and being visually impaired, Lizzie showcases how she transformed societal challenges into opportunities for personal growth. Her TEDx talk emphasizes the importance of self-empowerment, focusing on aspirations and accomplishments instead of societal judgments. Lizzie's resilience and determination, fueled by a loving family, allowed her to embrace her uniqueness, challenge bullies, and forge her path as a motivational speaker and author.

Highlights

• Lizzie uses her rare syndrome as an advantage in life, showing a positive outlook. 🌟
• Raised by supportive parents, she credits them for instilling strength and resilience. 💪
• Experiences with bullying drove Lizzie to self-reflect and redefine herself. 🧐
• A viral negative video catalyzed her to focus on self-improvement. 🎥
• Her goals include motivational speaking, publishing books, and building a career. 📚

Key Takeaways

• Self-definition transcends physical appearance – focus on your goals and accomplishments. 💪
• Leverage negativity as a tool to fuel your personal growth and success. 🚀
• Support systems are crucial – they can uplift you during tough times. 🌟
• Your life is in your hands – steer it towards a positive path. 🚗
• Embrace your uniqueness and let it empower you to reach your dreams. 🌈

Overview

Lizzie Velasquez captures hearts as she narrates her life story, highlighting the adversity she faced due to a rare syndrome that prevents her from gaining weight. While society often judged her based on her appearance, Lizzie's narrative is one of resilience. Her supportive parents instilled a powerful lesson: her condition didn't define her. Instead, Lizzie chose to focus on her talents and ambitions, a mindset she carries on as a motivational speaker, overcoming bullying and societal hurdles.

Life wasn’t always a smooth ride for Lizzie. As a child, she couldn't comprehend why she was treated differently or bullied. Her ability to transform the negativity around her into motivation became a cornerstone of her inspirational journey. A shocking viral video labeling her "the world's ugliest woman" could have defeated her, but instead, it propelled her to redefine herself. Lizzie turned societal challenges into a platform for motivational speaking and writing, impacting countless lives.

Today, Lizzie Velasquez stands as a beacon of positivity and determination. With a college degree and multiple published books, she encourages everyone to introspect about what truly defines them. Her mantra of utilizing life’s adversities as stepping stones to success resonates widely. Lizzie calls on her audience to channel their inner strength and dreams to craft a life defined by achievements, not limitations.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction and Background The chapter introduces the author's excitement about sharing more details on a rare syndrome affecting them. The author highlights the uniqueness of their condition—having a rare syndrome known to affect only three people globally, including themselves. The syndrome's primary characteristic is an inability to gain weight.
• 01:30 - 04:00: Challenges and Family Support The chapter explores personal challenges related to maintaining a healthy weight, as the speaker describes an extraordinary metabolic rate that prevents weight gain regardless of dietary habits. They reflect on their experiences throughout various stages of life, such as college, where indulgence in junk food like Twinkies, doughnuts, chips, and Skittles was common. Despite these habits, they never exceeded 64 pounds. The narrative underscores the speaker's unique physical condition and hints at the reactions of those around them, such as a roommate who would notice late-night snacking habits.
• 04:00 - 09:00: Bullying and Self-Perception The chapter titled 'Bullying and Self-Perception' explores the positive aspects of living with particular challenges. Despite facing difficulties such as being visually impaired or having a thin frame, the speaker emphasizes the unexpected benefits of these conditions. The narrative promotes a perspective of gratitude and resilience, encouraging the audience to reframe their mindset towards adversity.
• 09:00 - 13:00: Defining Yourself and Overcoming Negativity The chapter discusses strategies and perspectives on self-definition and overcoming negativity.
• 13:00 - 16:30: Achievements and Motivational Journey In the chapter titled 'Achievements and Motivational Journey,' the narrator, Lizzy, humorously expresses a willingness to become a representative or 'poster child' for a weight management program like Weight Watchers. She imagines volunteering to use the program and showcasing her success with it as part of a motivational journey.
• 16:30 - 19:00: Closing Thoughts on Self-Definition The chapter discusses the dual nature of a certain syndrome. While it has brought about amazing aspects, it also presents significant challenges, especially from a young age. The author shares personal experiences, beginning with their birth, where doctors informed their mother about a complete lack of amniotic fluid. Despite these odds, the author's parents chose to raise them as normally as possible, a decision that shaped their upbringing and perspective on life.

How Do YOU Define Yourself Lizzie Velasquez at TEDxAustinWomen Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 I'm really really really excited to be here I kind of want to tell you a little bit more of the I don't want to say basics cuz we don't really know anything about my syndrome I was born with this very very rare syndrome that only two other people in the world including myself that we know of have basically what the syndrome causes that I cannot gain weight yes it does to help as good
• 00:30 - 01:00 as it is I could eat absolutely whatever I want whenever I want and I won't really gain any weight I'm gonna be 25 in March and I've never weighed over about 64 pounds of my entire life what this is in college I hit why did hide it was I wrote it was there but it was a giant tub of Twinkies doughnuts chips skittles and my roommate would say I could hear you at 12:30 reaching under
• 01:00 - 01:30 your bed to get food but I'm like you know what it's alright I can do these things because there are benefits to this syndrome there are benefits to not being able to gain weight there are benefits to being visually impaired there are benefits to being kind of really small a lot of people think Lizzie how the world are you saying there's benefits when you can only see out of one eye let me tell you what the benefits are cuz they're great I wear
• 01:30 - 02:00 contacts contact half-up contacts when I wear my reading glasses hat off prescription if somebody is annoying me being rude stand on my right side it's like you're not even there I don't even know you're standing there right now if I sound like this I have no clue but
• 02:00 - 02:30 there's this whole size of the room also being small I am very willing to volunteer myself to go to Weight Watchers go to some gym and say hi I'm Lizzy I will be your poster child put my face whatever you need and I'll say hi I use this program look how well it worked
• 02:30 - 03:00 even though there are really amazing things that have come from this syndrome there are also things that have been very very difficult as you can imagine growing up I was raised 150 percent normally when I was my parents first child and when I was born the doctors told my mom your daughter has no amniotic fluid around her at all so when
• 03:00 - 03:30 I was born it was a miracle that I came out screaming the doctors told my parents we just want to warn you expect your daughter to never be able to talk walk crawl think or do anything by herself now as first parents you could first-time parents you could think that my parents would say oh no why why why are we getting our first child to have all these unknown problems that's not
• 03:30 - 04:00 what they did the first thing they told the doctor was we want to see her and we are going to take her home and love her and raise her to the best of our abilities and that's what they did I credit pretty much everything that I've done in my life - my parents my dad is here with me today and my mom is at home watching she's recovering from a surgery and she has been the glue that's held our family together and giving me
• 04:00 - 04:30 the strength to see that she's going through so much but she has this fighting spirit but she's instilled in me that I have so proudly been able to stand in front of people and say you know what I've had a really difficult life but that's okay that's okay things have been scary things have been tough one of the biggest things that I had to deal with growing up was something that I'm pretty sure every
• 04:30 - 05:00 single one of us in this room has dealt with before can you guess what that is start to the beat can you guys guess it boys holy I know y'all are thinking I should have come here with them I had to deal with bullying a lot but as I said I was raised very normally so when I started kindergarten I had absolutely no idea
• 05:00 - 05:30 that I look different no clue I couldn't see that I look different from other kids I think of it kind of as a big slap of reality for a five year olds because I went into schools first day decked out in Pocahontas gear I was ready I went in with my backpack that looked like a turtle shell because it was bigger than me and I walked up to a little girl I smiled at her she looked up at me like I was a monster like I was the scariest thing she'd ever seen in her life my
• 05:30 - 06:00 first reaction was she is really rude I am a fun kid and she's the one missing out so I'll just go over here and play with blocks or boys I thought the day was gonna get better and unfortunately it didn't the day kind of got worse and worse and a lot of people just wanted to have absolutely nothing to do with me and I couldn't understand why why what did I do I didn't do anything to them am i my guy
• 06:00 - 06:30 was still a really cool kid so I had to go home and ask my parents what's wrong with me what did I do why don't they like me and they sat me down and they said Lizzie the only thing that's different about you is that you're smaller than the other kids you have this syndrome but it's not gonna define who you are they said go to school pick your head up smile continue to be yourself and people will see that you're just like them and so that's what I did I want you to think and ask yourself this in your head right now
• 06:30 - 07:00 what defines you who are you is it where you come from is it your background is it your friends what is it what defines who you are as a person it's taken me a very long time to figure out what defines me for so long I thought what define me was my outer appearance I thought that my little tiny legs my little arms in my little face was ugly I thought it was disgusting I hated when I would wake up in the morning I
• 07:00 - 07:30 was going to middle school and looking in the mirror getting ready in the king can I just rub this syndrome off it would make my life so much easier if I could just scrub it off I could look like the other kids I wouldn't have to buy clothes that had Dora the Explorer on it I wouldn't have to buy stuff that was bedazzled when I was trying to be like the cool kids I would wish and pray and hope and do whatever I could to pray that I would wake up in the morning and I would be
• 07:30 - 08:00 different and I wouldn't have to deal with these struggles it's what I wanted every single day and every single day I was disappointed I have an amazing amazing support system around me who never pity me who are there to pick me up if I'm sad who are there to laugh with me during the good times and they taught me that even though even though I have this syndrome even though things are hard I can't let that define me my
• 08:00 - 08:30 life was put into my hands just like your lives are put into yours you are the person in the front seat of your car you are the one who decides whether your car goes down a bad path or a good path you are the one that decides what defines you let me tell you it could be really easy to I mean really hard to figure out what what defines you cuz there are times where I would just get still annoyed and frustrated I don't
• 08:30 - 09:00 care what defines me when I was in high school I found the video unfortunately that somebody posted of me labeling me the world's ugliest woman there were 4 million views to this video 8 seconds long no sound thousands of comments people saying Lizzy please please just do a world a favor put a gun to your head and kill yourself think think about that if people did it people told you that
• 09:00 - 09:30 strangers told you this I cried my eyes out of course and I was ready to kind of fight back and something kind of clicked in my head and I thought I'm just gonna leave it alone I kind of started realizing that my life is in my hands I could either choose to make this really good or I can choose to make this really bad I could either be grateful and open my eyes and realize the things that I do have and make those the things
• 09:30 - 10:00 that define me I can't see out of one eye but I can see out of the other I might get sick a lot but I really nice hair Thanks you guys are like the best little section right here okay okay so I could
• 10:00 - 10:30 either choose to be happy or I could choose to kind of be upset with what I have and still kind of complain about it but then I started realizing am I gonna let the people who call me a monster define me am I gonna let the people who said kill it with fire define me no I'm gonna let my goals and my success and my accomplishments be the things that define me not my outer appearance not the fact that I'm visually impaired not
• 10:30 - 11:00 the fact that I had this syndrome that nobody knows what it is so I told myself I'm gonna work my butt off and do whatever I could to make myself better because in my mind the best way that I could get back at all those people who made fun of me who teased me who called me ugly who called me a monster was to make myself better and to show them you know what tell me those negative things I'm gonna turn them around and I'm gonna use them as a ladder to climb up to my
• 11:00 - 11:30 goals that's what I did I told myself I wanted to be a motivational speaker I want to write a book graduate college have my own fan my own career eight years later I'm sitting in front of you is still doing motivational speaking first thing I accomplished it I wanted to write a book in a couple weeks I will be submitting the manuscript for my third book I
• 11:30 - 12:00 wanted to graduate college and I just finished I'm getting a degree I'm getting a degree in Communication Studies from Texas State University in San Marcos and I have a minor in English I really really tried to use real-life experience while I was getting my degree and my professors were not having it but I wanted to have lastly my own family in
• 12:00 - 12:30 my own career and the family part is kind of down the line in my career part I feel like I'm really doing well with it considering the fact that when I decided I wanted to be a motivational speaker I went home I sat in front of my laptop went to Google type in how to be a motivational speaker I'm not even joking I worked my butt off I use the people who are telling me that I couldn't do this to motivate me I use their negativity to light my fire to keep going use that use that use that
• 12:30 - 13:00 negativity that you have in your life to make yourself better because I guarantee you guarantee you you will win now I want to end with asking you again I want you to leave here and ask yourself what defines you but remember rape starts here thank you
• 13:00 - 13:30 [Applause]