Lizzie Velasquez And Sara Bordo On ‘A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story’ [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO]

Lizzie Velasquez, who was born with a rare genetic syndrome that makes it impossible to gain weight, let filmmaker Sara Bordo into her life in order to make the inspiring film A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story.

The Lizzie Velasquez Story

Growing up, Velasquez soon learned that there was something different about her. She went from doctor to doctor who couldn’t determine the disorder she was battling, and was bullied by her peers who were scared of the unfamiliar. Despite that, Velasquez managed to embrace life and become a vivacious teen.

“Once I got older, I started putting myself in situations that were a little bit scary, trying out for the cheerleading squad, joining other clubs or organizations that my friends weren’t in,” Velasquez told uInterview in an exclusive interview. “As scary as it was, I just really wanted to learn who I was as a person. And, over time, continuing to do that more and more, I think that’s what led to me being able to really come out of my shell.”

Bullied As ‘Ugliest Woman In The World’

However, at 17, Velasquez’s confidence took a major blow when she came upon a YouTube video that labeled her “the world’s ugliest woman.”

“I felt like I had worked so hard to get to this certain level of confidence that I had and I was procrastinating doing homework, just looking to play a song on YouTube and I saw a picture on the right hand side of the screen that looked a little bit familiar,” said Velasquez. “When I clicked on it, I didn’t know that it was going to change my entire life. I saw ‘the world’s ugliest woman’ title, saw that there were over four million views and thousands of comments, and within 2.5 seconds all of that confidence that I had worked so hard to build was just gone.”

Since then, Velasquez has rebuilt her confidence has now hopes to inspire others. It was while giving an inspirational speech at the Ted Austin Women Event in 2013 that Velasquez captured the attention of Bordo. Following the event, Velasquez and Bordo became fast friends, and were both amazed with how Velasquez’s Ted Talk had gone viral.

“Once we found out and watched this amazing wildfire that was catching after Lizzie’s talk got posted online we started to see this incredible openness that people were really responding to her in a fashion that they needed her recipe of hope; they needed to get in their own life what Lizzie had lived through,” Bordo told uInterview.

“I approached Lizzie and said I know this is crazy because I haven’t done a film before and you’ve been asked 10 times by a lot more experienced filmmakers than I, but I really believe I know exactly how to tell this story and I promised her parents that I would take care of her,” Bordo added.

During the course of filming the documentary, Velasquez, after all of those years, was finally given a concrete diagnosis – Neonatal Progeroid Syndrome – a rare form of Marfan syndrome that includes lipodytrophy. Though Bordo told Velasquez the emotional diagnosis didn’t have to be a part of the movie, Velasquez insisted.

“I knew right away I wanted it to be in the film. I wanted to of course get more answers for myself, but if I didn’t share it in the film I don’t think it would’ve been fair because I had already been so vulnerable up until that point,” Velasquez explained.

Bordo said, “It was important to me to show that Lizzie’s story, there is more than one way to deal with her experience.” Adding of how Velasquez persisted in her life instead of taking it, she said, “It was important for me to show that there is a choice and that Lizzie has gotten through the tunnel of bullying and is on the other side, and she is looking in trying to help other people out one at a time.”

A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story is currently in limited release.