06/06/2014

A Motivational Speaker

'World's ugliest woman' becomes motivational speaker

She has been given a title no woman will ever want to have.

She was labelled the world's ugliest woman by heartless netizens.

But that did not stop Ms Lizzie Velasquez, 24, from channelling the hatred into motivation and spreading the message of acceptance.

She is one of the three known people who suffer from a rare syndrome that prevents her from gaining weight and has caused blindness in her right eye. The rare condition still baffles doctors and is thought to affect just two other people worldwide, the Daily Mail reported.

She was born four weeks premature and weighed less than a kilogramme. Doctors found there was minimal amniotic fluid protecting her in the womb.

They could not make a diagnosis so they prepared Miss Velasquez's parents for the worst. But she survived.

Doctors say she was was born without adipose tissue, meaning she has no body fat. Despite eating up to 60 small meals a day, she remains at a delicate 26kg.

But she redefines what it means to be beautiful.

Ms Velasquez, of Texas, was at a TED talk in Texas last month. TED is a set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation.

She told viewers how she had resolved to take charge of her life by killing the negativity with ambition.

She said: "I'm going to let my goals and my success and my accomplishments define me, not my outer appearance."

After years of misery and self doubt, she said in 2012 that she finally shrugged off the hurtful comments about her looks as "just words".

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