WEBVTT

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I'm really, really, really
excited to be here.

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I kind of want to tell you

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a little bit more of the -
I don't want to say basics -

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because we really don't know
anything about my syndrome.

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I was born with this very rare syndrome,

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that only two other people in the world
including myself, that we know of, have.

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Basically what this syndrome causes,
is that I cannot gain weight.

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Yes, it does sound as good as it is.

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(Laughter)

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I could eat absolutely
whatever I want, whenever I want

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and I won't really gain any weight.

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I'm going to be 25 in March,

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and I've never weighed over
about 64 pounds in my entire life.

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When I was in college, I hid -

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well, I didn't 'hide' it,
everyone knew it was there -

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but it was a giant tub
of Twinkies, donuts, chips, Skittles,

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and my roommate would say,
"I could hear you at 12:30 am,

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reaching under your bed to get food."

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But I'm like, "You know what?
It's alright, I can do these things!"

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Because there are benefits
to this syndrome.

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There are benefits
to not being able to gain weight.

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There are benefits
to being visually impaired.

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There are benefits
to being kind of really small.

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A lot of people think,

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"Lizzie, how in the world
are you saying there are benefits

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when you can only see
out of one eye?"

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Well, let me tell you
what the benefits are

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because they are great.

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I wear contacts--conTACT.
Half-off conTACTS.

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(Laughter)

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When I wear my reading glasses:
half-off prescription.

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If somebody is annoying me,
being rude:

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Stand on my right side.

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(Laughter)

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It's like you're not even there.
I don't even know you're standing there.

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Right now, if I stand like this,
I have no clue

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that there's this whole side of the room.

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Also, being small,
I am very willing to volunteer myself

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to go to Weight Watchers
or to some gym, and say,

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"Hi, I'm Lizzie.
I will be your poster child.

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Put my face on whatever
you need, and I will say,

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'Hi! I used this program.
Look how well it worked.'"

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(Laughter)

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Even though there are amazing things
that have come from this syndrome,

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there are also things that have been
very, very difficult, as you can imagine.

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Growing up, I was raised 150% normally.

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I was my parents' first child.

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And when I was born,
the doctors told my mom,

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"Your daughter has no
amniotic fluid around her.

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At all."

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So when I was born, it was a miracle
that I came out screaming.

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The doctors told my parents,

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"We just want to warn you:
Expect your daughter to never be able

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to talk, walk, crawl, think,
or do anything by herself."

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Now, as first-time parents,
you would think that my parents would say,

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"Oh no. Why?
Why are we getting our first child

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with all these unknown problems?"

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But that's not what they did.

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The first thing they told the doctor was,

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"We want to see her,
and we are going to take her home

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and love her, and raise her
to the best of our abilities."

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And that's what they did.

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I credit pretty much everything
that I've done in my life to my parents.

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My dad is here with me today,
and my mom is at home watching.

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Hi mom! 
(Laughter)

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She's recovering from surgery.

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She has been the glue
that's held our family together,

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and she's given me the strength
to see that she's going through so much,

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but she has this fighting spirit
that she's instilled in me,

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so that I have proudly been able
to stand in front of people and say,

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"You know what?
I've had a really difficult life.

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But that's okay."

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That's okay. Things have been scary,
things have been tough.

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One of the biggest things

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that I had to deal with growing up

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was something I'm pretty sure

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every single one of us in this room
has dealt with before.

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Can you guess what that is?

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It starts with a 'B'.
Can you guys guess it?

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Audience: Boys!
Lizzie: Boys?

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(Laughter)

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Bullying!

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(Laughter)

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I know what you all are thinking.

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(Laughter)

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Why can't I sit here with them?
(Laughter)

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I had to deal with bullying a lot,
but as I said, I was raised very normally,

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so when I started kindergarten,

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I had absolutely no idea
that I looked different.

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No clue.

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I couldn't see that I looked
different from other kids.

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I think of it as a big slap
of reality for a five year-old,

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because I went in to school the first day,
decked-out in Pocahontas gear.

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I was ready!

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(Laughter)

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I went in with my backpack

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that looked like a turtle shell
because it was bigger than me,

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and I walked up
to a little girl and smiled at her,

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and she looked up at me
like I was a monster,

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like I was the scariest thing
she had ever seen in her life.

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My first reaction was,

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"She is really rude.

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(Laughter)

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I am a fun kid,
and she's the one missing out.

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So I'll just go over here
and play with blocks. Or boys."

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(Laughter)

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(Lizzie laughs)

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I thought the day would get better,
and unfortunately, it didn't.

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The day got worse and worse.
A lot of people just wanted to have

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absolutely nothing to do with me,
and I couldn't understand why.

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Why? What did I do?
I didn't do anything to them!

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In my mind I was still a really cool kid.

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I had to go home and ask my parents,

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"What's wrong with me?

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What did I do? Why don't they like me?"

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They sat me down and said,

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"Lizzie, the only thing
different about you

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is that you're smaller
than the other kids.

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You have this syndrome,
but it's not going to define who you are."

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They said, 
"Go to school, pick your head up, smile,

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continue to be yourself,
and people will see

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that you're just like them."

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And so that's what I did.

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I want you to think, and ask yourself
this in your head, right now:

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What defines you?

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Who are you?

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Is it where you come from?
Is it your background? Is it your friends?

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What is it?

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What defines who you are as a person?

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It's taken me a very long time
to figure out what defines me.

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For so long I thought what defined me

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was my outer appearance.
I thought that my little tiny legs,

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and my little arms,
and my little face were ugly.

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I thought I was disgusting.

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I hated when I'd wake up in the morning
when I was going to middle school,

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and would be looking in the mirror
getting ready, and thinking,

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"Can I just scrub this syndrome off?

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It would make my life so much easier
if I could just scrub it off.

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I could look like other kids;
I wouldn't have to buy clothes

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that had Dora the Explorer on them.
I wouldn't have to buy stuff

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that was 'Bedazzled', when I was trying
to be like the cool kids."

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I would wish, and pray, and hope,
and do whatever I could

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so I would wake up
in the morning and be different,

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and I wouldn't have to deal
with these struggles.

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It's what I wanted every single day,

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and every single day I was disappointed.

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I have an amazing
support system around me,

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who never pity me, who are there
to pick me up if I'm sad,

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who are there to laugh with me
during the good times,

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and they taught me that,
even though I have this syndrome,

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even though things are hard,
I can't let that define me.

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My life was put into my hands,
just like your lives are put into yours.

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You are the person
in the front seat of your car.

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You are the one who decides

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whether your car goes down
a bad path, or a good path.

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You are the one
who decides what defines you.

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Now let me tell you:
it could be really hard to figure out

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what defines you,
because there were times

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when I'd get so annoyed
and frustrated, and say:

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"I don't care what defines me!"

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When I was in high school I found a video,

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unfortunately, that somebody posted of me,

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labeling me the world's ugliest woman.

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There were over four million views
to this video; eight seconds long,

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no sound, thousands
of comments; people saying,

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"Lizzie, please - please -
just do the world a favor,

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put a gun to your head,
and kill yourself."

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Think about that,
if people told you that,

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if strangers told you this.

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I cried my eyes out of course,
and I was ready to fight back

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and something
kind of clicked in my head,

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and I thought,
"I'm just going to leave it alone."

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I started realizing
that my life is in my hands.

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I could either choose
to make this really good,

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or I could choose
to make this really bad.

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I could be grateful,
and open my eyes

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and realize the things that I do have,

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and make those the things that define me.

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I can't see out of one eye,
but I can see out of the other.

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I might get sick a lot,
but I have really nice hair.

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(Laughter)

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(Audience) You do, you do!

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Thanks.

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You guys are like
the best little section right here.

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(Laughter)

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(Lizzie laughs)
You made me lose my train of thought!

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(Laughter)

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Okay... where was I?

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Audience: Your hair!

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Hair! Hair. Ok, ok, thank you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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So I could either choose
to be happy or I could choose

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to be upset with what I have
and still kind of complain about it,

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but then I started realizing:

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Am I going to let the people
who called me a monster define me?

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Am I going to let the people who said,
"Kill it with fire!" define me?

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No; I'm going to let my goals,
and my success, and my accomplishments

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be the things that define me -
Not my outer appearance,

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not the fact that I'm visually impaired,

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not the fact that I have this syndrome
that nobody knows what it is.

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So I told myself
I'm going to work my butt off

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and do whatever I could
to make myself better,

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because in my mind, the best way
that I could get back at all those people

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who made fun of me, who teased me,

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who called me ugly,
who called me a monster

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was to make myself better,
and to show them:

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You know what?

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Tell me those negative things,

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I'm going to turn them around,

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and I'm going to use them as a ladder

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to climb up to my goals.

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That's what I did.

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I told myself that I wanted
to be a motivational speaker,

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I wanted to write a book,

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graduate college, have my own family,
and have my own career.

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Eight years later,
I’m standing in front of you,

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still doing motivational speaking.

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First thing, I accomplished it.

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I wanted to write a book;
in a couple of weeks

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I will be submitting
the manuscript for my third book.

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(Applause)

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I wanted to graduate college,
and I just finished college.

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(Cheers and applause)

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I'm getting a degree
in Communication Studies

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from Texas State University in San Marcos,

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and I have a minor in English.

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I really, really tried to use
real-life experience

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while I was getting my degree,
and my professors were not having it.

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I wanted to have, lastly,
my own family and my own career.

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The family part is kind of down the line,
and my career part,

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I feel like I'm really doing well with it,
considering the fact that

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when I decided I wanted to be
a motivational speaker, I went home,

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I sat in front of my laptop,
went to Google, and typed in:

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"How to be a motivational speaker."

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(Laughter)

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I'm not even joking.

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I worked my butt off.
I used the people who were telling me

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that I couldn't do this
to motivate me.

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I used their negativity
to light my fire to keep going.

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Use that. Use that.
Use that negativity

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that you have in your life
to make yourself better,

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because I guarantee you -

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guarantee you -

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You will win.

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Now I want to end, with asking you again.

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I want you to leave here,
and ask yourself what defines you.

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But remember:

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Brave starts here.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)