A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story

Lizzie: I remember the first day of school really well.

This is the kindergarten wing.

All the classes would sit here and line up.

And I would always hide behind these things.

And I would sit here.

And hide.

And then other kids would stare at me or...just not be nice.

The kids I would play with would run,

and I couldn't run that fast or I would get tired really quickly

or I'd start coughing, and I would get frustrated.

And to avoid it, I just stayed sitting there

which secluded me even more.

I would look at everyone and just wish I could be them.

I would just wish that they could understand me.

I never thought it was ever possible for me to be accepted.

And to just think that 20 years later, the world knows who I am,

and it's for something good.

Audience:

Woman: Lizzie!

Girl: Grandma! Grandma...

Rita: It was just a normal pregnancy.

Everything was fine every time I went in.

There was no sign of anything different or wrong.

I didn't feel different.

I wasn't sick.

Nothing.

I was gaining weight,

and my stomach was growing.

So everything was meeting

where I was supposed to be at each month.

Dr. Wilson: Things were going well during her pregnancy,

and no big red flags.

Rita's ultrasound done at around 12 weeks

had no real indication of problems

early on in the pregnancy.

Rita: I was way too early to deliver.

We were here at the house,

and we had just spent the day at Zilker Park, walking,

and that night, I started having contractions.

I thought I just overdid myself at the park,

but through the whole night it was just the contractions

over and over and over.

Then the scary part started.

Lupe: I was a little nervous.

I remember driving about 6:30 in the morning on the highway,

still dark, going to the hospital.

Silence really.

Other than your pains.

Rita: We went into the emergency room,

and that's when I was admitted

because I was having contractions, and I was dilated.

Lupe: I remember them saying

we're going to get the superman of sonograms.

And so I remember him sitting there,

and he was saying--

he just kind of looked and he says,

"We gotta get this baby out tonight."

Rita: The doctors had said they had never seen a child like that.

And they didn't know exactly what was going on with her.

Dr. Wilson: Lizzie was small and had the appearance

of a size 4 skin around a size two baby.

But Lizzie did not have a specific chromosomal disorder.

And I can't think of any baby

that has essentially had no diagnosis.

Rita: When I woke up, Lupe was next to me,

and he started telling me, "She's very small.

"She's at ICU.

And we don't know what's gonna happen."

So...

Lizzie: The doctors took a Polaroid picture of me and showed it to mom

because they thought she was going to be

too scared to see me in person.

I had a giant forehead, and I still do.

If I had bangs, I'd do the side bang when I was a baby, too.

Ha ha!

This picture makes me happy.

Lupe: I loved her.

I was just excited. It didn't matter.

I mean, to me, she was already Lizzie.

She was our daughter.

She's tiny. It doesn't matter.

She's our baby.

And there was never a sense of,

"I can't believe this is happening to us"

or "why did this happen to us?"

It's just like, I can't wait to get her home.

Lizzie: Aw, two pounds, 10 ounces.

I was a real big baby.

That's funny.

Did they write this when I wasn't named yet

since it says "Babygirl Velasquez"?

What if that's what my parents named me?

Baby girl. Ha ha!

Ah...

But it's funny to think, like,

this little card is what, like, started--

This is how I started, through this card.

Lupe: Here she comes.

Rita: Ha ha!

Lupe: Elizabeth!

Rita: Hi, Daddy!

Lizzie: Basically all we had known all my life

was that I had a syndrome where I can't gain weight.

Woman: Hi, Lizzie!

She's too busy! Hi, Lizzie!

It's delicious!

Rita: The doctors' main focus was getting weight onto her.

And it was always a dietician, a nutritionist coming in,

saying she needs to drink these shakes,

add this to her food, you know.

We went through that whole thing with them.

And she still wouldn't gain weight.

Yay!

Lupe: Elizabeth...

Rita: I would get scared.

But we tried not to show her that we were scared,

and a lot of it was when she would be put in the hospital

for different surgeries.

Lizzie: Growing up,

there was always something wrong with me.

I was in and out of the hospitals.

It was one thing after the next.

I used to be able to count how many surgeries I had on one hand.

Appendix, intestines, foot surgery, eye surgery,

ear surgery, studies, panels, MRIs, bone density scans,

dexa scans of my whole body.

It's like a whole other language.

A lot of blood work tests,

a lot of having to start IVs over and over and over

because my veins collapsed.

I had total reconstruction on my foot.

Because all of these toes were stuck like this.

So my doctor put metal plates back here.

He cut whatever this is called back here.

And I had pins that stuck out of every toe to keep them straight.

And we went back into the doctor,

and he pulled out the pins from my toes one by one.

To this day, I'm still being tested.

Until they find a diagnosis, I have to keep going.

I would always convince myself, one more thing is done.

It sucked, but now we're going to do something fun.

Just get through it.

I wanted to make this video today

to speak out about an issue

that has gotten completely out of control.

Bullying.

And no, it's not something new

that we're just now learning about.

Our grandparents, our parents, our friends, our siblings,

even the cool kids we think have a perfect life,

they've been bullied, too.

That's not the same.

That was my classroom right there.

Elia: You know, every child comes in with their parents.

When Lizzie first entered my classroom,

of course she was early because her dad was also a teacher.

So Rita walked her in,

and I remember that, you know, she went to find her desk,

and as the class starts to fill up,

other kids came in and would stare at her.

Lizzie: At the time, I thought everyone looked like me.

I couldn't recognize or tell that they didn't look like me.

Lupe: I was most worried about her making friends,

if people were going to be mean to her or...

not want to play with her.

Or just asking her a lot of questions

that she's young and probably can't answer,

like, "Why do you look like that?"

or "What's wrong with you?"

Yeah, because we never talked to her about that.

No one's really ever asked her that.

And I thought, we're not there.

Yeah.

Lizzie: I remember

going up to groups of kids that were playing,

and they would just walk away, like as if I wasn't there.

You know, me as a teacher,

and if I would be walking down the hall with my class,

and we happen to...their class is walking down,

I'd be watching her just to kind of see

when other kids would be transitioning

and all of them would be, like, poking

and looking and talking.

You know, my choices are you go tell them, "Stop!"

You know, "She's just like you!"

Or I mean, I had to be professional,

and I couldn't say anything.

And in my mind, I'm just--it's breaking my heart.

Lizzie: They weren't actually saying something,

so I couldn't understand them.

I was just going off of their stare

or I could see their mouth moving

and I couldn't hear them.

Or I could see them pointing,

and I didn't know, are they pointing at me or are they not.

I think that was always the worst,

because it was when I was making up the thoughts in my own head

because they weren't actually saying it to my face.

Ugh, I'm scared to open this.

"I'm sad when somebody stares at me because I'm so..."