[billybek]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Saw her on the Today show a few weeks back.

Strong girl who got dealt a ****ty hand.

She is an inspiring individual. Much better role model than a majority of overpaid professional athletes.

I don't think it's appropriate that her condition is a source of amusement.

It’s not easy to go through life leading a parade of people staring at you, whispering behind your back and wondering what’s wrong with you when, from your standpoint, nothing is wrong at all.

But that’s how it’s always been for Lizzie Velasquez, a bright and bubbly college student with a rare disorder that makes it impossible for her to gain weight, no matter how much she eats.

“They look at me like I’m a monster. Wherever I go, it’s like I walk with an audience because people are constantly looking at me,” Velasquez, 21, told TODAY’s Ann Curry Tuesday in New York.

Velasquez was just 2 pounds when she was born about eight weeks premature. She grew slowly and has no body fat, so that today she weighs barely 61 pounds — about as much as an average 8-year-old.

Doctors say she has many symptoms of neonatal progeroid syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by premature aging and an extreme lack of fat. One of just three to six people in the entire world with her specific symptoms, Velasquez has a triangular face and a sharp, beaklike nose. She also has lost vision in her right eye.

Nice to know the whole story. Thanks for posting this.