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How The World's So-Called 'Ugliest Woman' Turned Online Hate Into The Most Inspirational Campaign Ever

by Maria Bell ,
How The World's So-Called 'Ugliest Woman' Turned Online Hate Into The Most Inspirational Campaign Ever© Youtube/Lizzie Velasquez

We’ve all experienced some form of bullying at one point in our lives but imagine being in high school and stumbling across a video on Youtube about yourself. Now imagine that the video was entitled “THE UGLIEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD.”

That was the reality for 17-year-old anti-bullying campaigner Lizzie Velasquez. At the time of watching, the video had amassed over four million views and had thousands upon thousands of horrific comments asking her parents why they didn’t abort her and to “kill it with fire.” Yeah, internet, you really sucked on this one.

However, since then Lizzie – who just happens to be a complete BABE - has become one of the world’s most infamous anti-bullying campaigners.

In the past three years Lizzie has gone on TED Talks (the video of which now has over 2.4 million views) and released a documentary called ‘A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story' which shows her story right up until the point of TED in 2013.

Now, as part of October’s #BullyingPreventionMonth, she’s released a video alongside celebrities such as Kristen Bell, Kylie Jenner, Chris Hemsworth and more, to fight back against bullying and persuade congress to pass ​the Safe Schools Improvement Act, the first federal anti-bullying act in the US.

She also happens to have one of * the * most stalkable Instagrams out there just FYI.

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In an interview with Fox she says: "I always knew I wanted to show these people that they weren't going to define me. I didn't want the definition of me that they were creating to become my truth, I wanted to make my own truth."

​Never has there been a bigger understatement.

Touched by Lizzie's story or want to share an #antibullying story of your own? Tweet us at @sofeminineUK.

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Maria Bell
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