A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story

Several years ago, four million YouTube users clicked on a video titled "The World's Ugliest Woman." Many of them took time to share comments like "She's a monster," and "Do everyone a favor and just kill yourself." Eventually, someone else clicked on it: Lizzie Velasquez, the Texas teenager who was the focus of the video but had no idea that it had been posted. Lizzie was born with an undiagnosed syndrome that left her without the ability to gain weight, a clouded-over eye, a large forehead, and other distinctive features.

As a young girl she was painfully shy, often hospitalized, and at school, mocked and gawked at. She wished for nothing more than to be just like everyone else. Over time, with the support of strong, loving parents, Lizzie developed self-esteem, found friends, and even joined the cheerleading team. And then came the night when she postponed homework to surf for music videos, and instead found herself online.

A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story from filmmaker Sara Hirsh Bordo is the inspiring story of what happened next. Lizzie was destroyed, and she spent days unable to even get up. Her family had the video taken down, but the man who posted it taunted that he'd re-post it forever. Her parents counseled her to forgive him, to see him as a damaged person who needed help. From this guidance came the idea that Lizzie's best way of fighting back would be to recognize a problem bigger than her own: she would become a crusader against bullying and an outspoken supporter of its victims.

Lizzie began with YouTube, posting videos that drew more than 100,000 followers. This brought an invitation to speak at a TED conference, which resulted in appearances with Katie Couric and The View and presentations to crowds in England, Spain, and Mexico (where she addressed 10,000 people and met Hilary Clinton). Ultimately, she testified for anti-bullying legislation at Congress.

A Brave Heart is moving, and you can expect tears throughout, particularly as Lizzie remembers the casual cruelties of a difficult childhood. But the tears become happy ones when Lizzie finds her purpose, and the embrace of admirers around the world. Now, when an insulting text makes its way to her backstage before a presentation, she casts it as simply more fuel for a crusade to change the world, one bully at a time.

PRODUCT INFO
"A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story"
Filmmaker Sara Hirsh Bordo
$14.93
Cinedigm
www.imwithlizzie.com