Lizzie Velasquez story shared with students at Carmel International Film Festival
The Carmel International Film Festival screened “A Brave Heart,” an anti-bullying documentary to more than 700 middle school and high school students on Friday.
Students from Monterey Peninsula Unified School District schools filled the auditorium at the Sunset Center to see the movie and hear from the subject of the film, Lizzie Velasquez.
Velasquez is a woman who suffers from a rare genetic disorder that prevents her from gaining any weight and makes her look different from everybody else.
"In my mind, I was just like everyone else, but of course, they didn't see it that way," Velasquez said in an interview Friday.
Her looks forced her to face cruelty when she started school in Texas.
"This is the kindergarten wing, and all of the classes would always line up and wait, and I would always hide behind these things. I would sit here and hide, and other kids would stare at me and just not be nice," Velasquez told the camera crew at the beginning of the film.
The bullying happened in the classroom, on the playground and some of the worst of it took place online.
When she was 17, Velasquez said she found a video of herself on YouTube, and it became a defining moment.
"I found a video that someone had posted of me, calling me the world's ugliest woman, and there were over four million views," she said as she described the moment.
The video had thousands of comments.
"Saying the world would be a better place if you weren't in it, and when you go out of the house, you should wear a bag on your head," Velasquez explained.
The now 26-year-old says it was the worst day she faced, but she came out of it knowing she had a purpose in this life, and that was to help others who are bullied.
At age 24, Velasquez gave a TED Talk. It became the most watched TED Women's event of all time, and it was the beginning of the documentary, “A Brave Heart.”
After the talk, Velasquez and her family got multiple offers to film documentaries and reality television shows and came to the decision they would do none.
"We just felt like they would exploit her," said Lizzie's father, Lupe Velasquez.
But when the founder of Women Rising and a producer of Lizzie Velasquez's TED Talk, Sara Hirsh Bordo, approached the family about making a docudrama, the family eventually said yes.
"I told them, I will take care of your daughter's story, I will care for it," Hish Bordo said.
Friday's event at the Carmel Film Festival marked the largest group of students to see the film yet.
"This was a dream of both Lizzie and mine from the beginning, because we really wanted to create a film that would inspire kids," Hirsh Bordo said.
The film documents Lizzie Velasquez's struggle but also the positive message of overcoming one’s challenges to achieve your goals.
Seeing the movie and hearing from Lizzie Velasquez, was a once in a lifetime event, for kids who've seen her online and who've already gained strength from her inspirational story.
"My parents would talk about her when they were giving one of their talks. Whenever I was bullied, they would mention her and, like, never to give up," said Brayden Howerton, a sixth-grader at Seaside Middle School.
Today Lizzie Velasquez spends her time traveling the world sharing her message, through talks, on her social media channels, and with trips to Washington, D.C., where she's lobbied Congress to pass anti-bullying legislation. So far, she has been unsuccessful.
The Safe Schools Improvement Act would ensure schools prohibit bullying in their codes of contact and would require states to record instances of bullying in their annual school safety reports.
Velasquez and her family have another trip to Washington planned for Sunday.
Until the legislation is passed, Velasquez hopes this film can be seen by as many children as possible.
"To be able to show them that there is a light on the other side of being bullied is something that I'm very very grateful for," she said.