The Lizzie Project

Lizzie Velasquez was once known as "the world's ugliest woman", but after her speech on TED talk in December 2013, she became known as an inspiration to many. Now Velasquez is using her own experiences of bullying to reach out an even-wider audience by putting together a documentary about her story.

She was born with a rare disease that made it impossible for her to gain weight. Never in her life has she weighed more than 64 pounds, and is completely blind in one eye. Not only did she have to deal with the physical struggles of her disease, but on top of that she also had to deal with the emotional pain of being bullied. Still, she found a way to look beyond all of that and decided to do something good for humanity despite the way people treated her.

Velasquez wants to act as a protector for those who are being bullied and have a hard time believing that things will get better. As someone who has a disease that caused people to label her the "ugliest" woman, she knows that everyone has the opportunity to overcome their demons and be something great. What people say is not as important as how you handle it.

As of right now she is working on raising money for the film through a Kickstarter campaign. The goal is to raise $180,000 and as of right now there has been $123,000 raised. The campaign will end on May 31, and the trailer for the documentary can be seen at TheLizzieProject.com

It was at age 17, that Velasquez's life changed when she came across a YouTube video that claimed she was the ugliest woman. She recalls reading a comment that said, "Do the world a favor and put a gun to your head". It was at that very moment she decided to be happy and view her disease as a blessing. Instead of being pitiful she wanted to improve her self-esteem and inspire others who face the same problem.The comments she read gave her the motivation and drive she need to write three self-help books and actually talk about the struggles she has faced in life. Since then she has gained thousands of followers on her social network sites.

Her story serves as a lesson to all that as long as we are able to love and accept who we are the rest will fall into place. We must be able to overlook what others think and not have it in our heads that we should be a certain way. There is no other person to be but who we already are. We must accept the bodies we were given. In a book I read called: "If Life is a Game , These are the Rules", it was said that once we are able to accept our appearance our confidence will overpower the way we look not only in our own eyes but in the eyes of others.

I look forward to watching the documentary and hope that Velasquez's story will be able to capture the attention of a large audience and help to change their perception on life for the better. It is important that everybody knows that they can make their lives better. It is not just going to happen, they have to work on their confidence and be accepting of who they are. Once they do that they will be able to see their full potential and  achieve greatness.