0:00:06.083,0:00:09.087
I'm really, really, really[br]excited to be here.

0:00:09.087,0:00:10.952
I kind of want to tell you

0:00:10.952,0:00:13.745
a little bit more of the -[br]I don't want to say basics -

0:00:13.745,0:00:16.961
because we really don't know[br]anything about my syndrome.

0:00:16.961,0:00:19.637
I was born with this very rare syndrome,

0:00:19.637,0:00:24.477
that only two other people in the world[br]including myself, that we know of, have.

0:00:24.487,0:00:28.325
Basically what this syndrome causes,[br]is that I cannot gain weight.

0:00:28.325,0:00:31.380
Yes, it does sound as good as it is.

0:00:31.380,0:00:33.930
(Laughter)

0:00:33.930,0:00:37.436
I could eat absolutely[br]whatever I want, whenever I want

0:00:37.436,0:00:40.376
and I won't really gain any weight.

0:00:40.376,0:00:42.796
I'm going to be 25 in March,

0:00:42.796,0:00:46.981
and I've never weighed over[br]about 64 pounds in my entire life.

0:00:46.981,0:00:49.740
When I was in college, I hid -

0:00:49.740,0:00:52.851
well, I didn't 'hide' it,[br]everyone knew it was there -

0:00:52.851,0:00:58.178
but it was a giant tub[br]of Twinkies, donuts, chips, Skittles,

0:00:58.178,0:01:01.212
and my roommate would say,[br]"I could hear you at 12:30 am,

0:01:01.212,0:01:03.748
reaching under your bed to get food."

0:01:03.748,0:01:08.227
But I'm like, "You know what?[br]It's alright, I can do these things!"

0:01:08.227,0:01:11.237
Because there are benefits[br]to this syndrome.

0:01:11.237,0:01:14.143
There are benefits[br]to not being able to gain weight.

0:01:14.143,0:01:16.807
There are benefits[br]to being visually impaired.

0:01:16.807,0:01:19.952
There are benefits[br]to being kind of really small.

0:01:21.212,0:01:22.507
A lot of people think,

0:01:22.507,0:01:25.767
"Lizzie, how in the world[br]are you saying there are benefits

0:01:25.767,0:01:28.058
when you can only see[br]out of one eye?"

0:01:28.058,0:01:30.781
Well, let me tell you[br]what the benefits are

0:01:30.781,0:01:34.013
because they are great.

0:01:34.013,0:01:40.184
I wear contacts--conTACT.[br]Half-off conTACTS.

0:01:40.184,0:01:42.015
(Laughter)

0:01:42.015,0:01:46.837
When I wear my reading glasses:[br]half-off prescription.

0:01:46.837,0:01:51.881
If somebody is annoying me,[br]being rude:

0:01:51.881,0:01:53.325
Stand on my right side.

0:01:53.325,0:01:54.779
(Laughter)

0:01:54.779,0:01:58.567
It's like you're not even there.[br]I don't even know you're standing there.

0:01:58.567,0:02:01.763
Right now, if I stand like this,[br]I have no clue

0:02:01.763,0:02:04.473
that there's this whole side of the room.

0:02:05.613,0:02:12.206
Also, being small,[br]I am very willing to volunteer myself

0:02:12.206,0:02:18.668
to go to Weight Watchers[br]or to some gym, and say,

0:02:19.458,0:02:23.347
"Hi, I'm Lizzie.[br]I will be your poster child.

0:02:24.589,0:02:28.529
Put my face on whatever[br]you need, and I will say,

0:02:28.529,0:02:31.689
'Hi! I used this program.[br]Look how well it worked.'"

0:02:31.689,0:02:35.230
(Laughter)

0:02:35.230,0:02:38.774
Even though there are amazing things[br]that have come from this syndrome,

0:02:38.774,0:02:44.100
there are also things that have been[br]very, very difficult, as you can imagine.

0:02:44.100,0:02:49.849
Growing up, I was raised 150% normally.

0:02:49.849,0:02:52.618
I was my parents' first child.

0:02:52.618,0:02:56.055
And when I was born,[br]the doctors told my mom,

0:02:56.055,0:02:59.781
"Your daughter has no[br]amniotic fluid around her.

0:02:59.781,0:03:02.017
At all."

0:03:02.017,0:03:05.841
So when I was born, it was a miracle[br]that I came out screaming.

0:03:05.841,0:03:07.745
The doctors told my parents,

0:03:07.745,0:03:11.143
"We just want to warn you:[br]Expect your daughter to never be able

0:03:11.143,0:03:16.967
to talk, walk, crawl, think,[br]or do anything by herself."

0:03:16.967,0:03:22.980
Now, as first-time parents,[br]you would think that my parents would say,

0:03:22.931,0:03:28.739
"Oh no. Why?[br]Why are we getting our first child

0:03:28.739,0:03:31.829
with all these unknown problems?"

0:03:31.829,0:03:34.385
But that's not what they did.

0:03:34.385,0:03:36.443
The first thing they told the doctor was,

0:03:36.443,0:03:39.313
"We want to see her,[br]and we are going to take her home

0:03:39.313,0:03:43.299
and love her, and raise her[br]to the best of our abilities."

0:03:43.299,0:03:45.595
And that's what they did.

0:03:45.595,0:03:49.905
I credit pretty much everything[br]that I've done in my life to my parents.

0:03:49.905,0:03:53.451
My dad is here with me today,[br]and my mom is at home watching.

0:03:53.451,0:03:56.132
Hi mom! [br](Laughter)

0:03:56.132,0:03:58.628
She's recovering from surgery.

0:03:58.628,0:04:01.495
She has been the glue[br]that's held our family together,

0:04:01.495,0:04:05.902
and she's given me the strength[br]to see that she's going through so much,

0:04:05.902,0:04:10.456
but she has this fighting spirit[br]that she's instilled in me,

0:04:10.456,0:04:15.516
so that I have proudly been able[br]to stand in front of people and say,

0:04:15.516,0:04:19.742
"You know what?[br]I've had a really difficult life.

0:04:19.742,0:04:21.753
But that's okay."

0:04:21.753,0:04:26.227
That's okay. Things have been scary,[br]things have been tough.

0:04:26.227,0:04:27.481
One of the biggest things

0:04:27.481,0:04:29.169
that I had to deal with growing up

0:04:29.169,0:04:30.740
was something I'm pretty sure

0:04:30.740,0:04:33.535
every single one of us in this room[br]has dealt with before.

0:04:33.535,0:04:35.640
Can you guess what that is?

0:04:35.640,0:04:37.956
It starts with a 'B'.[br]Can you guys guess it?

0:04:37.956,0:04:39.742
Audience: Boys![br]Lizzie: Boys?

0:04:39.742,0:04:41.945
(Laughter)

0:04:41.945,0:04:43.288
Bullying!

0:04:43.288,0:04:45.791
(Laughter)

0:04:45.791,0:04:47.773
I know what you all are thinking.

0:04:47.773,0:04:49.742
(Laughter)

0:04:49.742,0:04:52.882
Why can't I sit here with them?[br](Laughter)

0:04:52.882,0:04:56.823
I had to deal with bullying a lot,[br]but as I said, I was raised very normally,

0:04:56.823,0:04:58.786
so when I started kindergarten,

0:04:58.786,0:05:01.824
I had absolutely no idea[br]that I looked different.

0:05:01.824,0:05:03.143
No clue.

0:05:03.143,0:05:06.174
I couldn't see that I looked[br]different from other kids.

0:05:06.174,0:05:10.065
I think of it as a big slap[br]of reality for a five year-old,

0:05:10.065,0:05:13.860
because I went in to school the first day,[br]decked-out in Pocahontas gear.

0:05:13.860,0:05:15.729
I was ready!

0:05:15.729,0:05:17.338
(Laughter)

0:05:17.338,0:05:18.688
I went in with my backpack

0:05:18.688,0:05:21.817
that looked like a turtle shell[br]because it was bigger than me,

0:05:21.817,0:05:25.496
and I walked up[br]to a little girl and smiled at her,

0:05:25.496,0:05:27.831
and she looked up at me[br]like I was a monster,

0:05:27.831,0:05:30.825
like I was the scariest thing[br]she had ever seen in her life.

0:05:30.825,0:05:32.147
My first reaction was,

0:05:32.147,0:05:34.086
"She is really rude.

0:05:34.086,0:05:35.495
(Laughter)

0:05:35.495,0:05:37.825
I am a fun kid,[br]and she's the one missing out.

0:05:37.825,0:05:41.163
So I'll just go over here[br]and play with blocks. Or boys."

0:05:41.163,0:05:44.227
(Laughter)

0:05:44.227,0:05:45.941
(Lizzie laughs)

0:05:45.941,0:05:49.216
I thought the day would get better,[br]and unfortunately, it didn't.

0:05:49.216,0:05:52.571
The day got worse and worse.[br]A lot of people just wanted to have

0:05:52.571,0:05:56.572
absolutely nothing to do with me,[br]and I couldn't understand why.

0:05:56.572,0:06:00.618
Why? What did I do?[br]I didn't do anything to them!

0:06:00.618,0:06:03.057
In my mind I was still a really cool kid.

0:06:03.057,0:06:04.853
I had to go home and ask my parents,

0:06:04.853,0:06:06.029
"What's wrong with me?

0:06:06.029,0:06:08.247
What did I do? Why don't they like me?"

0:06:08.247,0:06:09.649
They sat me down and said,

0:06:09.649,0:06:12.031
"Lizzie, the only thing[br]different about you

0:06:12.031,0:06:14.187
is that you're smaller[br]than the other kids.

0:06:14.187,0:06:18.441
You have this syndrome,[br]but it's not going to define who you are."

0:06:18.441,0:06:21.838
They said, [br]"Go to school, pick your head up, smile,

0:06:21.838,0:06:24.106
continue to be yourself,[br]and people will see

0:06:24.106,0:06:25.814
that you're just like them."

0:06:25.814,0:06:28.232
And so that's what I did.

0:06:28.232,0:06:31.750
I want you to think, and ask yourself[br]this in your head, right now:

0:06:31.750,0:06:33.892
What defines you?

0:06:33.892,0:06:35.555
Who are you?

0:06:35.555,0:06:39.076
Is it where you come from?[br]Is it your background? Is it your friends?

0:06:39.076,0:06:40.397
What is it?

0:06:40.397,0:06:43.052
What defines who you are as a person?

0:06:43.052,0:06:47.869
It's taken me a very long time[br]to figure out what defines me.

0:06:47.869,0:06:49.949
For so long I thought what defined me

0:06:49.949,0:06:54.405
was my outer appearance.[br]I thought that my little tiny legs,

0:06:54.405,0:06:57.760
and my little arms,[br]and my little face were ugly.

0:06:57.760,0:06:59.519
I thought I was disgusting.

0:06:59.519,0:07:03.288
I hated when I'd wake up in the morning[br]when I was going to middle school,

0:07:03.288,0:07:06.449
and would be looking in the mirror[br]getting ready, and thinking,

0:07:06.449,0:07:09.478
"Can I just scrub this syndrome off?

0:07:09.478,0:07:13.993
It would make my life so much easier[br]if I could just scrub it off.

0:07:13.993,0:07:17.085
I could look like other kids;[br]I wouldn't have to buy clothes

0:07:17.085,0:07:20.754
that had Dora the Explorer on them.[br]I wouldn't have to buy stuff

0:07:20.754,0:07:24.998
that was 'Bedazzled', when I was trying[br]to be like the cool kids."

0:07:24.998,0:07:29.005
I would wish, and pray, and hope,[br]and do whatever I could

0:07:29.005,0:07:31.910
so I would wake up[br]in the morning and be different,

0:07:31.910,0:07:34.358
and I wouldn't have to deal[br]with these struggles.

0:07:34.358,0:07:36.214
It's what I wanted every single day,

0:07:36.214,0:07:39.491
and every single day I was disappointed.

0:07:39.491,0:07:43.931
I have an amazing[br]support system around me,

0:07:43.931,0:07:49.758
who never pity me, who are there[br]to pick me up if I'm sad,

0:07:49.758,0:07:52.587
who are there to laugh with me[br]during the good times,

0:07:52.587,0:07:57.935
and they taught me that,[br]even though I have this syndrome,

0:07:57.935,0:08:03.070
even though things are hard,[br]I can't let that define me.

0:08:03.070,0:08:08.909
My life was put into my hands,[br]just like your lives are put into yours.

0:08:08.909,0:08:12.115
You are the person[br]in the front seat of your car.

0:08:12.115,0:08:13.648
You are the one who decides

0:08:13.648,0:08:17.811
whether your car goes down[br]a bad path, or a good path.

0:08:17.811,0:08:22.277
You are the one[br]who decides what defines you.

0:08:22.277,0:08:25.575
Now let me tell you:[br]it could be really hard to figure out

0:08:25.575,0:08:28.342
what defines you,[br]because there were times

0:08:28.342,0:08:30.792
when I'd get so annoyed[br]and frustrated, and say:

0:08:30.792,0:08:33.383
"I don't care what defines me!"

0:08:33.383,0:08:35.555
When I was in high school I found a video,

0:08:35.555,0:08:37.927
unfortunately, that somebody posted of me,

0:08:37.927,0:08:40.141
labeling me the world's ugliest woman.

0:08:40.141,0:08:43.642
There were over four million views[br]to this video; eight seconds long,

0:08:43.642,0:08:46.592
no sound, thousands[br]of comments; people saying,

0:08:46.592,0:08:52.258
"Lizzie, please - please -[br]just do the world a favor,

0:08:52.258,0:08:55.303
put a gun to your head,[br]and kill yourself."

0:08:57.193,0:09:01.867
Think about that,[br]if people told you that,

0:09:01.867,0:09:04.746
if strangers told you this.

0:09:04.746,0:09:07.821
I cried my eyes out of course,[br]and I was ready to fight back

0:09:07.821,0:09:10.263
and something[br]kind of clicked in my head,

0:09:10.263,0:09:14.077
and I thought,[br]"I'm just going to leave it alone."

0:09:14.077,0:09:18.933
I started realizing[br]that my life is in my hands.

0:09:18.933,0:09:22.311
I could either choose[br]to make this really good,

0:09:22.311,0:09:24.863
or I could choose[br]to make this really bad.

0:09:24.863,0:09:27.037
I could be grateful,[br]and open my eyes

0:09:27.037,0:09:29.979
and realize the things that I do have,

0:09:29.979,0:09:33.737
and make those the things that define me.

0:09:33.737,0:09:37.389
I can't see out of one eye,[br]but I can see out of the other.

0:09:37.389,0:09:40.746
I might get sick a lot,[br]but I have really nice hair.

0:09:40.746,0:09:42.293
(Laughter)

0:09:42.293,0:09:43.592
(Audience) You do, you do!

0:09:43.592,0:09:44.790
Thanks.

0:09:44.790,0:09:47.395
You guys are like[br]the best little section right here.

0:09:47.395,0:09:49.670
(Laughter)

0:09:49.670,0:09:52.396
(Lizzie laughs)[br]You made me lose my train of thought!

0:09:52.396,0:09:54.142
(Laughter)

0:09:54.142,0:09:56.168
Okay... where was I?

0:09:56.168,0:09:57.407
Audience: Your hair!

0:09:57.407,0:10:01.160
Hair! Hair. Ok, ok, thank you.[br]Thank you, thank you, thank you.

0:10:01.160,0:10:03.859
So I could either choose[br]to be happy or I could choose

0:10:03.859,0:10:07.240
to be upset with what I have[br]and still kind of complain about it,

0:10:07.240,0:10:09.797
but then I started realizing:

0:10:09.797,0:10:13.254
Am I going to let the people[br]who called me a monster define me?

0:10:13.254,0:10:17.918
Am I going to let the people who said,[br]"Kill it with fire!" define me?

0:10:17.918,0:10:23.481
No; I'm going to let my goals,[br]and my success, and my accomplishments

0:10:23.481,0:10:27.949
be the things that define me -[br]Not my outer appearance,

0:10:27.949,0:10:30.965
not the fact that I'm visually impaired,

0:10:30.965,0:10:35.894
not the fact that I have this syndrome[br]that nobody knows what it is.

0:10:35.894,0:10:38.582
So I told myself[br]I'm going to work my butt off

0:10:38.582,0:10:41.233
and do whatever I could[br]to make myself better,

0:10:41.233,0:10:46.914
because in my mind, the best way[br]that I could get back at all those people

0:10:46.914,0:10:49.743
who made fun of me, who teased me,

0:10:49.743,0:10:52.229
who called me ugly,[br]who called me a monster

0:10:52.229,0:10:54.558
was to make myself better,[br]and to show them:

0:10:54.558,0:10:56.474
You know what?

0:10:56.474,0:10:58.090
Tell me those negative things,

0:10:58.090,0:10:59.668
I'm going to turn them around,

0:10:59.668,0:11:01.557
and I'm going to use them as a ladder

0:11:01.557,0:11:03.576
to climb up to my goals.

0:11:03.576,0:11:04.937
That's what I did.

0:11:04.937,0:11:07.769
I told myself that I wanted[br]to be a motivational speaker,

0:11:07.769,0:11:09.036
I wanted to write a book,

0:11:09.036,0:11:12.342
graduate college, have my own family,[br]and have my own career.

0:11:13.002,0:11:15.430
Eight years later,[br]I’m standing in front of you,

0:11:15.430,0:11:19.074
still doing motivational speaking.

0:11:19.074,0:11:21.307
First thing, I accomplished it.

0:11:21.307,0:11:24.930
I wanted to write a book;[br]in a couple of weeks

0:11:24.930,0:11:28.613
I will be submitting[br]the manuscript for my third book.

0:11:28.613,0:11:34.232
(Applause)

0:11:34.232,0:11:38.232
I wanted to graduate college,[br]and I just finished college.

0:11:38.232,0:11:40.909
(Cheers and applause)

0:11:40.909,0:11:44.526
I'm getting a degree[br]in Communication Studies

0:11:44.526,0:11:47.117
from Texas State University in San Marcos,

0:11:47.117,0:11:49.237
and I have a minor in English.

0:11:49.237,0:11:52.558
I really, really tried to use[br]real-life experience

0:11:52.558,0:11:57.511
while I was getting my degree,[br]and my professors were not having it.

0:11:57.981,0:12:02.465
I wanted to have, lastly,[br]my own family and my own career.

0:12:02.465,0:12:05.942
The family part is kind of down the line,[br]and my career part,

0:12:05.942,0:12:09.801
I feel like I'm really doing well with it,[br]considering the fact that

0:12:09.801,0:12:13.108
when I decided I wanted to be[br]a motivational speaker, I went home,

0:12:13.108,0:12:16.287
I sat in front of my laptop,[br]went to Google, and typed in:

0:12:16.287,0:12:18.309
"How to be a motivational speaker."

0:12:18.309,0:12:19.177
(Laughter)

0:12:19.177,0:12:20.777
I'm not even joking.

0:12:20.777,0:12:24.019
I worked my butt off.[br]I used the people who were telling me

0:12:24.019,0:12:27.368
that I couldn't do this[br]to motivate me.

0:12:27.368,0:12:31.464
I used their negativity[br]to light my fire to keep going.

0:12:31.464,0:12:35.407
Use that. Use that.[br]Use that negativity

0:12:35.407,0:12:38.033
that you have in your life[br]to make yourself better,

0:12:38.033,0:12:41.605
because I guarantee you -

0:12:41.605,0:12:44.041
guarantee you -

0:12:44.440,0:12:47.152
You will win.

0:12:47.152,0:12:51.376
Now I want to end, with asking you again.

0:12:51.376,0:12:56.300
I want you to leave here,[br]and ask yourself what defines you.

0:12:56.300,0:12:58.198
But remember:

0:12:58.198,0:12:59.871
Brave starts here.

0:13:01.035,0:13:02.208
Thank you.

0:13:02.208,0:13:08.718
(Applause)