July 1, 2021 • 49 mins
Motivational speaker & author, Lizzie Velasquez {@littlelizziev}, is on for all 4 things. FIRST THING: Lizzie was born with an extremely rare congenital disease. It prevents her from accumulating body fat and gaining weight. Her parents were told by doctors when Lizzie was born, she wouldn’t be able to do simple things on her own and live a “normal life." There are a lot of things in this world that people allow to define them (job, culture, age, role in life, appearance, etc.)...Lizzie talks about what defines her and how she encourages others to discover their purpose. SECOND THING: No matter who you are, people will try to create their own labels to put on you. Lizzie shares her experience with this & how she handles bullying...specifically when a photo was being used of her on the TikTok #NewTeacherChallenge. “If you are an adult who has a young human in your life, please do not teach them that being scared of someone who doesn’t look like them is OK." -Lizzie. THIRD THING: Lizzie is all about using some of the bad things that happen as a “teaching moment." Many people find it difficult to stay in the moment during conflict. Lizzie shares how she stays the course and speaks truth without allowing the lies to creep in about self-worth. FOURTH THING: Lizzie shares 4 things she is currently thankful for!
Lizzie's Ted Talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzPbY9ufnQY
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Okay, cass up little food for you. So life. Oh
it's pretty Bay, it's pretty beautiful thing. That's a little
(00:23):
month your kicking with four Brown. So I'm excited to
be sitting down with my friend Lizzie for All four
Things today Lizzie Velasquez and on Instagram, she's Little Lizzie.
A lot of you may follow her. But Lizzie, how
(00:44):
long have we known each other? It's a long time. Gosh,
I feel like maybe thirteen, fourteen years, maybe even fifteen. Yeah,
I think I was like eighteen or nineteen. Yeah, and
I'm thirty two now, so yeah, a long time. Been
a long time. Remember meeting you when you came up
to visit us, And it's just been so amazing to
(01:06):
watch you grow and see your journey and you're so
inspiring to so many people, including me. And I also
love that you're wearing your espoa pull over, the white
one with the hot pink ESPOI, which means hope in
Haitian Creole. And you are just that, your hope for
so many people, and you spread so much of that.
(01:27):
And you've been an ambassador of Pimp and joy as
well and and all the things and It just warms
my heart to see the impact that you've paid across
the world. So for people that aren't familiar with you
and the story and this box that the world is
trying to put you in, walk us through some of that.
So I was born with the ver syndrome that doesn't
(01:47):
allow me to gain weight. Um. I was born two
pounds ten ounces when I came out, I actually had
two people in six weeks early because the doctor said
that I had stopped growing completely, so my mom had
to have an emergency C section. And when I came out,
there was no amniotic fluid around me, so I shouldn't
have come out screaming or alive, and everything was normal.
(02:10):
I was just very small, and there was nothing that
the doctors could definitively say this is what she has.
They basically just scared my parents and said she's not
going to be able to do anything in her life
on her own, and you're just gonna have to do
everything for her. So basically, from literally day one, I
was already being told I can't do anything, and so
(02:32):
my parents just said, we're going to take her home
and raise her to the best of our ability, and
that's what they did, and I wasn't officially diagnosed until
unexpectedly at the age of um. I have neo needle
pro drooid syndrome, which is made up of two things,
light boodistrict and Mark Fans. Light boodistrict just doesn't allow
me to gain weight, which we know, and mar Fans
(02:54):
affects my eyes, my bones, and my heart, and so
with my heart, I now run the risk of my
aortic bow dilating basically just getting too big, which is
the scariest thing. And so the good thing is that
we know when we're aware, and I have a great
team of doctors now, but basically that's all the causes.
So because of that, I am in a very very
small body, and I have had to deal with a
(03:15):
lot of bullying in person. When I was younger, and
when social media became a thing, it was, you know,
being teased online. And when I was seventeen, someone posted
a video of me calling me the world's uglized woman,
and there was over four million views when I found it.
I was seventeen when I found it, and all the
comments were just horrible and you know, telling me to
(03:36):
end my life, and why didn't my parents just aport
me if I was going to be so disgusting and
saying for me to put like a plastic bag over
my head when I went out, because if people saw
my face they would go blind from my ugliness. So
it was just horrible, horrible things that I sat there
and I read all the comments, I think mostly because
I was so desperate to find one that was positive
(03:59):
or one that was like so porting me, and unfortunately
I didn't find one. And so that sort of was
the biggest turning point in my life. And obviously I
didn't see that at the time, but it was one
of the biggest times where I was like, I need
to either show these people who I am or I'm
going to let them keep me inside and keep me
(04:20):
hidden away. And that's not that's not who I am. No.
I just want to commend your your parents, your family,
your friends that were surrounding you during that time, because
I'm sure you know their support also helped you know
that like, yes, you're not going to let this keep
you down, like you're going to actually use this as
(04:41):
motivation to move forward and be an advocate for anyone
facing any type of adversity. I can say it was
you know, like, oh yeah, eventually I forgave everyone and
it was fine. But it wasn't. It wasn't like that
at all. It was the process, and it took many
years for me to fully actually not only just stay
it out would but fully admit and believe myself that
(05:03):
I was forgiving these people who are saying these horrible things.
And I think that was one of the biggest lessons
I learned from that is realizing that not only did
I need to forgive them, but I needed to understand
them because they don't have the resources that I have.
Those people who are saying horrible things, they probably don't
have parents like mine, or they don't have friends like
(05:25):
mine who are showing them that this isn't right. So
I can't blame them or hold it against them because
they don't have the resources. And so I think that's
really what made me want to continue to do what
I do, because I wanted to be that resource for them.
Oh yeah, you're absolutely a resource for so many and
you know this is now your purpose in life, at
(05:47):
least one of them. Through all of this, You've found
what you're meant to be doing. So what would you
say to someone listening right now that is still trying
to figure out their purpose right now. Honestly, right now.
What my biggest things that I'm personally working on and
continuing to remind myself and tell myself is not so
to focus on what is it? When is it coming?
(06:11):
How is it going to be here? But more so
change your mindset into thinking, I know it's there, I
don't know when I'm going to find it or who's
going to show it to me, but it's going to come,
And to change just the simple mindset of the question
mark in your head to more so of an excitement
of you don't know when it's going to come, but
(06:31):
it's exciting to wake up every day and think, oh,
I'm gonna find my purpose, or my purpose is going
to find me, or my answer to some question I've
had in my mind for so long. Now all of
a sudden, I don't know when or who's going to
bring it to me, but I'm going to find out
and that answer is coming, and that's exciting. Versus I
(06:52):
don't know what I'm doing, I don't have anyone why
is this happening? So I think it's so important to
just change your mindset to know that we all have
a purpose. And it sounds corny and everyone says it,
but we truly truly have a purpose. And it doesn't
matter what age, it doesn't matter what stage in life
that you are told these things. Where you find out
(07:14):
these things, they're set and they're there, You're gonna have them.
You just have to have sort of the patients, which
I'm definitely working on having the patients, and have that
sense of excitement ready to go versus the sense of fear.
And why isn't that happening right now? So you have
a TED talk that's up on YouTube and it has
(07:36):
twelve million views basically, so let's talk about your Ted talk.
If people haven't listened to it or watched it, I
recommend they go do that, but we'll do a quick
summary here and then also what it's like for you
to have that kind of reach. I mean, the whole
thing is still crazy. I did the Ted talk in
(07:56):
two thousand thirteen, and I had started speaking professionally two
thousand eight or so, so I've been speaking for a
while up until that point, and I had got an
email to do something called ted X and I never
heard of it at the time. I thought it was spam,
so I ignored it for like a week, and then
(08:17):
they kept emailing me. And it was back when newspapers
were really a thing, and I was at home with
my parents and my dad was reading a newspaper and
saw that this Ted x Austin Women event was happening
and he was telling me about it, and right when
he said it, I was like, I got an email
from that, and he's like, are you crazy? Go tell
them You'll do it. So I did it. I still
(08:39):
didn't really know like what it was exactly. I didn't
realize that there were many speakers throughout the day and
you just do like a quick little speech. And at
that point I had developed my speaking style to where
I don't plan. I just know this is the goals,
this is a message, and somehow I start talking and
somehow I get there. And and with Ted there's lots
(09:01):
of rules, so you have to submit outlines and I
had to do it, and I had an entire speech
planned and literally right before, like when they called me
up and it introduced me, I looked at the girl
who I was planning with, who I had only met
once ever, and I said, do you trust me? And
she said yes, and I said, well, I'm I'm going
to throw away everything we talked about, just just trust
(09:24):
me and going up and speaking about how do you
define yourself? I don't know where that came from. I've
never spoken on that in my life. There's a part
if you watch it, where I lose my train of
thought and it's so genuine because I was just talking.
So to see that that's specific speech went viral in
(09:45):
less than two weeks when it was posted, and to
see that it took my career to a whole another
level was unbelievable. You know, that makes me think of
like TED Talks have have changed a lot of people's lives,
including Burnet Brown. I mean, she's someone that after she
gave her TED talk at complete changed the trajectory of
you know what she was doing still at the core,
doing a lot of her research and all of that.
(10:07):
So it's interesting to hear that it changed your career
as well. So let's focus on that the topic that
came to you organically as you're walking onto the stage,
how do you define yourself at that specific event. There's
a goal in Austin that's an all girls private school
and they had them bust In for that specific event,
(10:28):
and they had like pillows and blankets and stuff for
them on the floor, so they were right in front
of me on stage, and then all around was like
the tables and the women and all that kind of stuff.
And so going up and talking about how to define yourself,
I remember very very vividly as I was deciding to
just do my own thing, telling myself, pretend you're talking
(10:48):
to your best friend, and having those girls in the
front and the way that they were looking at me,
I think I just went into their mindset and started thinking, like,
how do you define yourself? How do you see yourself?
And throughout my speech, I think I was I surprised
myself with my answer because I'm I'm very into my
faith and I always sort of just let God speak
(11:09):
through me whenever I go on stage, and it's just
become such a comfort and so natural for me, and
so going out there and just expressing like, this is
who I am, this is how I define myself as
someone who the world is trying has been trying for
so long, so hard to define me and put me
in a certain category that I refused to stay in.
And so for me to be able to show the
(11:32):
world like you can't tell me who I am. This
is who I am, this is how I figured it out,
this is how I'm going to do it, and now
I'm able to talk about that in my speeches. Okay,
So when it comes to defining ourselves, basically we are
in charge of that. What you're saying is we cannot
let others in the world do that for us. It
is up to us. And gosh, Lizzie, I mean, you
(11:54):
have had to deal with so much and the amount
of grace that you've had to extend to other people,
and the patience is wild to me. And I know
you've admitted to sometimes it's hard, and I appreciate your honesty.
But something I want to circle back to that you
said a minute ago was the reframing. Like I've never
had somebody tell me to reframe something as excitement of
(12:19):
the unknown instead of keeping it a question mark, just
make it more of like a fun mystery of like
we get to be a part of this journey and
this exciting stuff is going to happen. I mean, I
know it's hard for somebody if they're if they're in
some lows, and I don't think either one of us
(12:39):
is saying, don't be in those low moments by any
means and and fake yourself out. I'm sure you still
deal with the people online that are super cruel. So
let's say you have a day where you're just inundated
with a lot. Do you have some self care or
some practices that you do to help make sure you're
taking care of those emotion because you do need to
(13:00):
recognize them as they come up. Yeah, I mean, I
would say pre quarantine, my schedule was so insane that
I never I would have the low times. But my
low times were on an airplane when it was like
I couldn't go anywhere and I was thinking about something.
But then I would planned and then I'm distracted and
I'm busy. But over this past year, I was in
my house and it was me and my two dogs
(13:23):
and that's it, and that's where we were all the time.
And I had social media, which was great, but it
was also hard at the same time because I didn't
have anything else to distract me from these comments or
thinking about life or whatever it was that was going
on in my head. And so I had to learn
to let those days happen where I was like, today
(13:44):
I'm sad and I don't care who knows it. I'm
not gonna hide it, even if I'm posting it on
social media. I'm going to be honest because for so
long I thought I needed to be that positive person
that I put myself out there to be seven even
though I was in that way and there were times
where I was hitting rock bottom, but I was still
on my phone and saying, like it gets better, things
(14:07):
are great while I'm falling as I'm typing, and I
realized how unhealthy that was for me. And it wasn't
me being true to everyone else, like I mean, especially
to myself. But really this past year realizing like I
am sad today and that's okay, and I'm going to
stay in a dark room. I'm gonna listen to sad music.
I'm going to express however it is I need to feel.
(14:30):
But also I really implemented how can I allow myself
to feel those things? But how am I going to
pick myself back up again? And I really held myself
accountable for that because it's so easy to just let
yourself feel sad and then just stay in bed and
then roll into the next day and you're still feeling
those emotions and you it gets harder and harder to
(14:53):
pick yourself back up again. So I had to find
little random things, whether it was I ordered a Lego
set for the first time since I was like a kid,
and I ordered the friends Um coffee Shop. Yes, I
saw Jennifer Garner doing that one I think on Instagram. Yes,
it made me the whole thing. Like I, if I
(15:14):
start something, I have to finish it, even if it
takes me forever. So having this concentration on this one
little thing was such a big help. So doing legos
or doing like adult paint by numbers, like random things
really really really helped me pick myself back up again
and remind me that there is something else to focus
(15:34):
on rather than whatever it is I was going through.
I love that, and I'll just piggyback or listeners maybe new,
maybe old. But that's exactly what puzzles did for me.
I never was a puzzle person until it was kind
of something that was my form of going through some
some hard times, and that is what I needed to
(15:54):
sort of recover and and dig out. Same with the
bird watching. So like bursts and puzzles, but I might
have to try the adult. Like I said, now I'm
suddenly intrigued by that. I had seen people posting about
it online, but now you've got me curious. And then
you have so many people that are following you and
watching you, and I do think you do a great
job of keeping that balance and keeping it real. And
(16:16):
I'll get vulnerable here for a second and tell people
that right before I got on this zoom with Lizzie, like,
I was having a little bit of a meltdown and
when I clicked the video thing, I was trying to recover.
But I was already five minutes late to our zoom
because of my little breakdown, and I knew I could
tell I had been crying, but I felt safe with
you because I have known you. And then I thought,
(16:38):
oh no, should I just reschedule? But then I was
also so excited to talk with you, and I want
to respect your time, and I didn't want to have
to move it. But yeah, I just want people to
know that we all go through things, and we're all
just trying to get through the day sometimes and get
everything done that we need to get done. You know,
it's so funny. I don't want to interrupt you, but
(16:59):
with you saying like feeling comfortable. I have to tell
you this, So do you have like a comfort show
or like a comfort movie or something that like you
just here. And for me it's still Magnilias, Like hearing
still Magnolias is like my anxiety calm thing. I don't
even have to watch it, just listen to it. But
the show love my comfort for so long and since
(17:23):
I've been listening since I was in middle school. Just
hearing your voices is something that helped me, especially when
I started traveling a lot and traveling out of the country.
I went download old podcast and it was just something
that made me feel so safe and like I was
at home. And so I think it's so nice that
(17:44):
it's a good reminder that like, even during my heart times,
that someone would feel safe, you know, with me, and
so with you. I hope you know that you're that
same comfort for a lot of people, not just me,
and by show, just for anyone listening. She's talking about
the Bob b Bones show from from back in the day,
just to you know, clarify and yeah, you've been such
(18:07):
a huge supporter for so long, and so yeah, that's
why I was super special to have you on the
podcast today. So if I had to think of a
show that brings me comfort, it probably is friends, you know,
since you bring them up with the little lego thing.
But Steel Magnolia's is one of my favorite movies ever.
I recorded Mike D's movie podcast. I don't think it's
(18:29):
hearing until July, but I run ahead and recorded the episode,
and he asked me my three favorite movies from my childhood.
And I don't know. I had an older sister, and
I guess my parents didn't really monitor really what we watched,
But my top three are Steel Magnolia's, Pretty Woman and
Dirty Dancing. I was just talking to my friend about
(18:50):
this because I was telling her my top three favorite
movies are so sad and so depressing that I only
watched like seventy five of them, so I don't watch
the ending, but there's still Magnolias in terms of endearment
and beaches and so like, they're all like the status
movies possible. I don't know why I'm not like a
sad person. I feel like I'm a happy person, but
(19:13):
I just love those movies. Is there anything that you
would recommend that we need to be watching right now,
whether it's a movie you recently saw or a TV
show that you're loving. I feel like all my recommendations
are like sad and dark, and I don't want anyone
to watch anything that's sad and dark. Okay, Well, if
you if you think of something, I don't know. I
don't know what I'm saying about, Like I'm sharing about
(19:35):
myself right now, that's okay. People, Well, I mean, I
know we've been talking about the Bobby Bones Show, and
you know Bobby well enough to know that like sad music.
He listens to that to almost feel happy in a
weird way. I mean, I get it. I get it.
It's a thing. So in the first thing, Lizzie, you
(19:57):
mentioned that at seventeen, experienced this video that went up
and there was four million views by the time you
had seen it, and there was all of these comments.
And I know that there was recently, and I say recent,
more recent than when you were seventeen, something that happened
with TikTok and just also over all these years, how
(20:18):
you've gone from bullying to helping empower people and educate
people for that matter. So can you share with us
what happened with TikTok and then what inspired you to
kind of continue pursuing what you're already doing. The whole
TikTok thing was so out of the blue, and I
did not realize that it was going to get as
(20:39):
big as it did, um which normally happens in my
life where I just say something and then sort of
it just goes. But I, just like everyone else in Quarantine,
downloaded TikTok, and I was one of those people that
was like, I'm not going to do it, and then
I did it, and then I couldn't stop. And I
remember seeing a trend where the videos like someone in
looks like you're on a FaceTime call, so it's like you,
(21:02):
and then the little square photo photo in the corner
where it's someone else. And I saw it. And it's
weird that I, when I see certain things, like something
just tells me I'm going to be a part of it,
and it comes through every time. And so I saw
it and I took a screenshot of it, and I
didn't tell anyone, and I just you know, went on
to whatever it as I was doing, and I thought,
(21:24):
someone's going to use my photo. I know what's going
to happen, and sure enough, it was like eleven o'clock
at night, and someone tagged me in the comments and
it was a mom. I think it was around the
time school was supposed to be starting, and it was
a mom who put one of my photos from Google.
It was like an old photo in the corner of
the screen, and she said to her son, this is
(21:45):
going to be your new teacher, knowing the kid was
going to have a certain reaction, and so she showed
her son the photo and it was me, and the
kid made like a scared, scared face, like a scared reaction,
and so I I looked through the other videos. It
was photos of babies who had down syndrum, and it
(22:05):
was photos of just all different kinds of people. And
I saw it and I was so upset, and I
remember texting my friends and just like I knew this
was gonna happen. And I tried to go to sleep,
and I couldn't sleep. I just kept thinking about it.
And I wasn't mad for myself at all. I was
mad because they were using other people's photos and they
(22:29):
don't have the platform that I do, and I wanted
to say something, and so I got up and I
put on my Choose Joy sweatshirt and I put it
on and it was like two o'clock in the morning,
I think, and put my contact in, set my phone up,
and I basically just told parents, like, this isn't funny.
This lesson is not okay for you to be showing
(22:51):
your kids that it's okay to laugh at someone who
looks different. And so I posted that and I went
to sleep, and I woke up the next day and
it was everywhere. I'm very impressed by your ability to
be in a situation like that and to want to
use your platform for good and to you know, yeah,
throw on that that Choose Joy hoodie and set out
(23:13):
to like really make a difference. Did you ever end
up talking with that mom? That's the first photo that
was used, and so what happened with that? I did, Uh.
We started messaging and she apologized, and I actually talked
to two different moms because there was another mom who
did it after that, like after it sort of went everywhere,
she still didn't. And so basically with both of them,
(23:36):
it was me saying, I'm not doing this to attack
you and call you out. I'm doing this so that
it could stop for everyone else because this isn't okay,
and basically just reiterating why this isn't okay. But also
I had that inside frustration of I should not have
to be explaining this to another adult. And that's where
like it sort of just makes me, makes me so angry,
(23:58):
and and there are times where I find these things
and I get really angry and I get mad for
myself for a little while. But then it's sort of
like this lesson that I feel like I need to
teach people. But there are certain times where I'll get
certain things and it hits me personally, and then it
makes me very angry. And that happened about a year
ago when I was sent on Instagram. You know, if
(24:22):
like you post a story and you can reply to
that person through the message. I didn't. Accidentally, the person
who replied to my story was a news anchor. I
found out it was a verified account, and I think
they meant to forward my story to a friend, but
they sent it to me directly and their response was God,
(24:44):
that's ugly, and it was a story of me, and
it was a verified account, and so I saw it
and I was so angry, Like the second I saw it,
I was so angry and then I was like, who
is this? And then I went and I saw that
it was the news anchor and then I saw that
he was a dad with daughters, and I was so mad.
(25:07):
And it was in October, during anti bowling month, and
I'm like, oh, this is this? Is it? Like I
have to say something. And normally, if if I get
something from like like a kid or you know, not
verified person, I will cover their any way for anyone
to find out, I cover it. But this was a
verified person and I was pretty mad, and so I
posted it and I basically said, I'm telling myself that
(25:31):
you didn't need to send this to me and it
was an accident, but I saw it and this isn't okay.
And maybe the next time you replied to someone you
sort of think about your words before you send it.
And oh my gosh, it went everywhere and it was
it was crazy, and the news station reached out to
me and they wanted me to go on and talk
with him on air about this, and it was just like, no,
(25:54):
thank you. Did you ever speak with him like d
M one on one or per Sally, Did he try
to reach out and apologize? Yeah? He did. He tried.
He messaged me, but I don't and it didn't reply.
I don't think it was a long time ago. I
don't think I replied. But he did message mean apologize
and said he has daughters and he wants to do
the right thing and stuff. But to do the right thing,
(26:16):
you don't do it in the first Yeah, I mean,
and it's too perfect that that happened during anti bullying months.
I mean, it's like you're handed this gift to pass
around to teach people. Okay, this is a perfect example
of bullying because it's not even like he was trying
to be public about it. He was sending it to
a friend. And I think it's just a reminder too
(26:38):
of how we can speak about people that we don't
even know behind their backs. And I mean, I mean,
not regarding you, but they're Okay, a lot of different
things that we do that I know that I'm certainly
guilty of, and you don't think it's harming anybody, and
you're talking with your best friends, so it's like, oh,
you know, but yeah, just to second guess anything that
(27:00):
you're going to say to someone else, like is this uplifting?
Is this positive? Is this worth really saying kind of
good to have a little checklist for yourself before you
type something or speak something. I do have a Lizzie quote?
Can I read it? Is regarding you know, similar topic,
(27:20):
the new teacher challenge. I believe so you said, if
you are an adult who has a young human in
your life, please do not teach them that being scared
of someone who doesn't look like them is okay. This
is a trend that needs to stop. Because we are humans,
we have feelings. I remember saying that, Yeah, it's such
(27:41):
simple words, easy for everybody to understand for sure, but
yet for some people it's just so hard to grasp
the concept of like, oh, yeah, this person has feelings too,
and you know they was saying like, if you prick me,
I will bleed. I feel as though sometimes people forget
that people behind the screen, or even us like on
(28:03):
the radio, or you behind all of you know, your
social media stuff and things you have going on, that
you are very real and you have very real feelings. Yeah.
I mean, I'm sure you've you've gotten this before. Where
someone will they in their mind they're telling you something nice,
but it comes off looks not nice at all to you.
(28:25):
And then you sort of you just get defensive right away,
even though you know they didn't mean it in a
mean way. And so it's kind of that mental thing
of like going back and forth of like, how do
I react to this in a nice way even though
I'm really offended by that. So I've I've had that
before in person, where it's like someone will come up
to me and they're like, you know, even though you're
(28:47):
not that pretty on the outside, you still have the
biggest heart, and you're like Jesus, and I'm like, Okay,
it doesn't cancel out. It's not nice what I like,
I'm most speechless right now that someone has come up
to you and said that, Lizzie, it's happened. I mean,
I instantly smile because this doesn't happening, but it's happened before.
(29:15):
I don't even know other than like right now, if
you're listening, don't ever say that to anybody. I feel
like though my my listeners already know that, I feel
like I have pretty kind of yeah. Yeah, don't don't
start a compliment with something negative because it just doesn't
end well, it's just not work at all. Okay, Well,
thank you for all that you do towards educating and
(29:37):
helping people learn and helping people unlearn. I feel like
that that's a big thing, and you know, just reaching
kids and adults on a level that you're just really
making a difference and I love that you're dedicated to it,
and I just I enjoy watching you grow. So thank
you for guiding us, like helping us be better. I
(30:00):
feel like I learned so much from following you, which
I think I said your Instagram earlier was little Lizzie,
but it's at little Lizzie V. So I wanted to
correct that because in the beginning I said little Lizzie.
So I want to make sure people go follow you
and they followed the correct account. And trust me, you
will be empowered by Lizzie for sure, because she's amazing. So, Lizzie,
(30:36):
we've talked about some difficult moments for sure on the
podcast today. They have already happened to you. Some I'm
still gasping about. But how are you able to kind
of stay true to who you want to be in
those moments and you know, use them for good and
like see them as okay, like this is a teaching moment,
Like how are you able to stay the course. I
(30:58):
let my parents because I have a younger brother, lister,
well they're not They're not younger, they're adults. But um,
I'm the oldest, and they've raised us exactly the same,
the three of us, and I have a role for
myself that I'm exactly the same in front of twenty
people than I am just looking at you and talking
(31:19):
right now. I cannot pretend I'm anyone else because it
just feels uncomfortable. And any time that i'm I see
where this is like a teaching moment or whatever. I
got that from my dad. My dad was in education
for thirty two years. He just retired, and he was
an elementary school principle at my elementary the entire time
(31:40):
I was there, and I remember there are so many
times where we would either be at school or out
in public and I would see people staring in My
automatic response was to, like, you know, hide behind someone
else or just pretend I didn't see it. And he
would always go up to the person or whoever was
and basically just say, this is my daughter, Lizzie. Do
(32:02):
you want to meet her? Versus stop staring at my daughter.
You don't know what's wrong with her or whatever. It
was always something positive, and so I look at that,
and that's sort of how I am now where if
something's happening, if I'm with other people, my instinct is to,
you know, make it like normal and casual and introduce
(32:23):
myself or whatever. But if I'm by myself, I respond
completely differently. I don't know why, but pre pandemic, I
traveled a ton by myself, and I have this sense
of confidence and I can, you know, go through an
airport and do what I need to do by myself.
But also it's like I feel like I need to
prove myself to people who I feel like are staring
(32:46):
at me. And I don't know if they're staring at
me just to stare or they recognize me, but in
my mind, they're staring at me to stare. And so
I'm walking and I don't feel like I have the
same sense of confidence that I do if I'm walking
with someone else that I know. So it's I want
to be very honest about that. I do try to
take advantage of a situation and you know, make things
(33:07):
positive and make it a teaching moment. But if I'm
by myself, I feel completely different, and so do teaching
moments mostly come are you saying when you're with other people?
Because I feel more confident. I don't know why, because
I will react the exact same because if I need
to say something when I'm by myself, I'll react the
same way. But I just don't feel like I can
(33:28):
do it by myself, which is weird. Yeah, I kind
of feel like I see you doing it by yourself.
So maybe I don't know I'm having like a premonition
or like I see it actually happening. Like I know
that it's difficult to say something, but I see maybe
you one day growing into that person and not in
a rude way, but in like a very thoughtful kind way.
(33:51):
And it's a goal. It's it's like I'm working towards it.
Do you make vision boards or anything like that, Yes,
but I just started doing them in a different way.
So I am developing a kid series right now, and
I have very big plans for this kid series. And
I had magnets made of where I'm envisioning this show
(34:14):
to live, and so I had them made in some magnets,
So I see the magnets every day of like my
show is going to be on this, or my show
is going to be on this. Okay, So like actually
like magnets, like they go on your fridge, like I
had them printed yet, and so is that that's where
you keep them? Do you move them around in your
fridge or in another room or like where I'm just
(34:36):
right now, they're all on my fridge. But my other
thing is, I know this doesn't really count as like
a vision board, but it's like list lists of like anything.
So anytime like I I say this is going to happen,
or I want this to happen, or if I have
a random idea, whether it's just a word or a
phrase or whatever it is, I write it down. So
I have lists like random lists all over. Yeah, it's
(34:59):
not a you know, you're not like cutting things out
of a magazine and making a vision board, which you're
actually like putting pen to paper and you're focusing on it.
I've talked about the Steve Harvey story before on the
podcast that it was a few years ago, but he
was on Oprah's Super Soul Conversation or maybe it was
Oprah's master Class. I can't remember exactly when and where
(35:20):
I heard it, but he's told it multiple times, but
his teacher told him he was never going to be
on TV. In fact, I think it was a homework
assignment like at school, what do you want to do
when you grow up? And he and I'm paraphrasing the
whole thing, by the way, so going from memory here,
but he basically was like, I'm gonna be on TV.
And she kind of got onto him like go home
and do this homework assignment correctly. You can't know you're
(35:42):
not gonna be on TV. And so he got a
bad grade for it or whatever, and his dad sort
of got onto him, was like, oh no, you're going
to be on TV. And his dad's the one that
was like, you write this down, put it in his
room and he looked at it every day, like I'm
going to be on TV. And then once he got famous,
(36:02):
and he went through a lot of loans before he
made it high and made it big. His story is
actually pretty fascinating, but every year for Christmas, once he
was rich and famous, he sent that teacher a TV.
Oh my gosh, it's like the best thing to do.
I have a similar story to that, except it was
(36:23):
my mom, my mom who did it for me. I
didn't know that she did this. But when I was
a freshman in college, I went to Texas State, so
Sin Marcus, so you know, not that far from Austin.
It was my first time to be on my own
and away from my parents, and like, I can do this,
I can be independent. And so I went and it
was my second semester. I came home for the weekend.
(36:45):
You know, I had my suitcase, went back to my
dorm and I was unpacking. And when I was unpacking,
there was a thick Manila envelope and it had like
two composition books and a spiral, and I didn't know
what it was. And I opened it and they were
letters that my mom started writing me from when I
was born until middle school. Every day she wrote me
(37:08):
a letter in these journals of what I did that day,
if I was sick, if I was bad, you know,
any little thing. And I was a mess, Like I
was crying so hard reading these letters. I had like
a towel wiping my tears away. And there was one
letter that I got to that said, I don't know
(37:30):
when I'm going to give you these letters, but I'm
going to give them to you one day. And I
hope and I pray that when I give you these letters,
you're reading them in your college dorm room. And I
was at the desk in my room. I get and
it was just like the most incredible manifesting moment. Yeah,
(37:51):
thanks for sharing that story, and thanks for sharing this
your your magnet idea. Some people might take that and
run with it. How did you figure out a company
that makes magnets? Did you just google it? So when
I moved into my house like three years ago, I
really wanted magnets and googled it. And there's an app
called Social Print Studio, I think, and they do all
(38:14):
different sizes so you can just put your photos and
they mail them to you. How perfect. I think that's
a great idea for adults, kids, anything that you want,
so that you have that visual every day and you
can even move them around, rearranged them. I worked with
It was before the pandemic, so it kind of lost
some steam. But I learned that I had been on
(38:36):
someone's refrigerator vision board guarding an adoption project that was
in the works. And turns out one of her friends
ended up dating my dad for a little bit, so
then she got away to meet me and when I
finally met with her and we had a meeting, and
I love the work that she was doing. She later
(38:56):
confessed to me that I had been on her refrigerator
for a while, and I just thought that was interesting.
I never knew I had been on somebody's refrigerator. But
all that to say not that like, oh hey, I
was on someone's vision board, but I was on refrigerator
and she was trying to find a way to meet me,
and then we never So yeah, it's a thing. When
(39:17):
I like I was teaching myself how to be a
motivational speaker, I watched all of these videos and do
you know who Bill Ransick is? Yes, Juliana's husband. Okay,
so he was my speaker idol, and I like watched
all of his stuff and like studied his website like
such a nerd. And I watched this one speaker video
(39:37):
he did where he was standing in the like the
center of a stage and there was like thousands of
people around him, and I was like, I'm going to
do that, And I know I made it. Why I
thought that was the thing? I know I made it.
When I'm standing like a Bill in the center stage
surrounded by people and I did it, and I was like,
I had that moment, and eventually I I had lunch
(40:00):
with him and I was like, I have to tell
you story. Um, I studied you and I told myself
I'd make it. I sounded so crazy, but it works.
Tell yourself you can do these things. Who is the
person you've been most excited to meet on your journey
with all of this? By all of this, I mean
your your life journey, I think I think the one
(40:22):
that I've become the closest with, like genuinely become really
close friends with that I would say most grateful four
versus most excited because this was very random, but it
is even men debts. Yeah, so she is incredible. So
she invited me to a fashion week things she did
(40:45):
a few years ago. Yet again I thought it was
a joke. I have to stop thinking things or jokes.
But I also didn't pay attention to that one because
I was like, there, even Mendes is not inviting me
to like a fashion show in New York like this what?
And it was it was actually her, But anyway, my
whole point is that she's just the most genuine, down
to earth, amazing, amazing person. Yeah, she does seem super nice.
(41:08):
Who she with Ryan Gosling? Did you get to meet him?
You did? Okay, Okay, all right, so I can tell
you more about that. Okay, so we'll talk about that offline.
So wait, that sounds bad, but you know what, I know,
I know what you mean. I don't think you mean
anything bad at all. I'm still laughing that Bill ran
(41:28):
Sick as your speaker, idol, not for not for any reason,
Like I'm sure he's amazing. I just had never I
never even knew that he was a speaker. It was
because him and Julianna had their show at the time,
and he wasn't an entrepreneur and doing a lot of
speeches about entrepreneur stuff. And when I googled how to
be a motivational speaker, he just was like in all articles,
(41:52):
and so he's the one that came up. So he
was the chosen one. I picked him because he was
popular at the time, and like, I want to be
Bill Ransick of all people. I love that. I actually
love where this thing went. I know we started off
talking about teaching moments, but I definitely can appreciate when
a conversation just goes somewhere totally random. And now anytime
(42:15):
I see Bill Ransick, I'm gonna kind of laugh a
little and think of you, my idol. All right, Lizzie,
you know we are big on gratitude here, and I'm
pretty sure you have one o our four things gratitude journals.
(42:38):
I've seen you post about it before, which is super
sweet of you to do. So we're going to wrap
things up with four things that you are currently thankful
for today. So I am completely independent in all aspects
of my life, but I can't drive because I'm blind
in one eye. And so the fact that I can't
you know, hop in my car and to the grocery
(43:00):
store to get something or you know, do anything like that,
it really really got me for a really long time
because I was ashamed and embarrassed by that. But now
I've gotten the courage to take an uber to go
do a random errand that I need to do. So
the fact that I don't have to depend on someone
to take me to do a random errand, Um, I
(43:21):
got to do that today. And it's been so long
since I've been able to safely get in an uber
because of the pandemic and so being able to have
that tiny sense of independence back. I'm so grateful for
so so grateful for that. I think the other thing
is I this is also random. I wear one contact
(43:43):
because I can see at a one eye, so I
have one contact, but I also have to wear reading glasses,
and I lost my reading glasses. I have no idea
where they are. But I'm grateful that I have other
humans that I can face time and call and have
them read me random things that I can't see, because
it happens so like measuring things. If I can't see that,
(44:05):
then I have to like FaceTime a friend and say,
I don't want to talk to you. I just need
you to know what this says. And that's what do
you say? I don't want to talk to you, I
just need you to read this to me. I don't
really want to have a conversation. I just need to
know what this sus. Sometimes there's something like possible dangerous
situations where I'm cooking and I say is this fully
(44:25):
cooked or not, which you know I should probably not do,
but I've done. And I think the third thing would
be my house every day. I think I'm still surprised
that I live here, and that I'm able to have
this space. I'm so so grateful for it and the
fact that there's just so many people who aren't in
this situation, especially with this past year. And every day
(44:49):
I wake up and it's like it's it's new and
it's exciting. And I've been here for three years, but
every day it's just like this sense of security and
happiness that I have, even though I've gone crazy being
here for so long. And I think the fourth thing.
The fourth thing is my dogs. Not many people know this,
(45:10):
but I got my first dog, Ali. He saved my life.
I had a documentary premier south By Southwest in two
thousand and fifteen, UM, and right after we had finished filming,
I absolutely hit rock bottom, completely hit rock bottom. And
it was during a time where I was traveling out
(45:30):
of the country for the first time, I was speaking
to the biggest audiences. I was literally having the movie
made about my life, and I was having thoughts of
not wanting to be here. And despite everything in my
life that's happened, I've never had those doughts until that time,
and so I had an overwhelming amount of guilt on
(45:50):
me because I was living my dream. But I was
in the worst place of my life mentally and emotionally,
and I got dangerously good at hiding it. And during
all of that time, I started living on my own.
I had my own apartment at the time, and I
had always had a roommate. Was my first time alone,
(46:10):
and so I was just not in a good place.
And I got a dog on my own for the
first time, and I didn't know how to have a
dog on my own, but he became the reason why
I had to get out of bed every morning because
he depended on me. And so now I have two
dogs and they're just my whole entire world. Well, thank
(46:31):
you for sharing them of the backstory of why is
it Ali saved your life? I mean, that's definitely not
an easy thing probably to revisit and say out loud again,
but thank you for sharing that and even the you
were dangerously good at hiding it, because I think that's
also just another reminder of like, you never know what
(46:53):
someone is really going through, and you may think you
know because maybe they do have X y Z going
on that are all pretty amazing, fabulous stuff or things
or opportunities like everything you would have ever hoped for,
right right, But yeah, you were still at a lowe.
I was broken, completely broken. Yeah, so God gave you Ali?
(47:14):
How did you find Ali? How did you all end
up together? My mom suggested I get a dog, and
everyone else was like, no, this isn't the right time.
It's going to be too much. And I reached out
to a family at our church who had posted that
they were looking to read home one of their dogs.
And it was Ali. And he had a different name,
(47:34):
and I'm like, I'm not going to call him that name.
It was weird. I don't remember what it was, but
it was such a weird name. Uh. And it turned
out he was two years old and he had already
been in three different homes, and just that broke me.
And I was like, come here to me. I don't
know how to have a dog. You're probably stronger than me,
but come here to me. And I did everything without
(47:56):
telling anyone. I saw, I had all I come over,
didn't tell anyone, and I loved him. I had to
leave to Vegas to speak, came back and Ali came
to live with me. And so what kind of dog
is Ali? He's a ship, Sue, and your other dog
is I don't want to leave the other dog out.
She's a ship suit as well, So Ali's all white
and Olivia is all black, and I couldn't think of
another name. So I've all heard a living because I'm
(48:19):
that creative. I love it. Well, Lizzie, thank you so
much for coming on and talking about all of this.
And I hope people go follow you if they aren't already.
And you have written four books, yeah, which is so amazing.
So I'll be linking all four of your books on
my Amazon page so it's an easy place for people
(48:41):
to find them. Just radio amy dot com for that.
But the titles of your books, I love them, so
I'm going to read them, thanks, Lizzie. Beautiful is the
first one. Be Beautiful Be You this second one. Choosing
Happiness is the third, and then Dare to Be Kind
How Extraordinary Compassion can transform Our World. And that's the
(49:03):
latest book, and I mean that title in itself, that
was my favorite. That's where I chose to disclose everything
about hitting rock bottom, so everything that I went through
is in there. And then also there's a chapter called
how a dog named all You saved my life, and
then that's about how I got back up again. I
appreciate you sharing your story and even your Ted Talk.
(49:27):
People should go watch that again. Basically twelve million views,
which is insane. So um incredibly proud and honored to
call you a friend and thank you for being a
safe space for me. Of course, thanks for having me
Okay, cass up little food for you. So life. Oh
it's pretty Bay, it's pretty beautiful thing. That's a little
(00:23):
month your kicking with four Brown. So I'm excited to
be sitting down with my friend Lizzie for All four
Things today Lizzie Velasquez and on Instagram, she's Little Lizzie.
A lot of you may follow her. But Lizzie, how
(00:44):
long have we known each other? It's a long time. Gosh,
I feel like maybe thirteen, fourteen years, maybe even fifteen. Yeah,
I think I was like eighteen or nineteen. Yeah, and
I'm thirty two now, so yeah, a long time. Been
a long time. Remember meeting you when you came up
to visit us, And it's just been so amazing to
(01:06):
watch you grow and see your journey and you're so
inspiring to so many people, including me. And I also
love that you're wearing your espoa pull over, the white
one with the hot pink ESPOI, which means hope in
Haitian Creole. And you are just that, your hope for
so many people, and you spread so much of that.
(01:27):
And you've been an ambassador of Pimp and joy as
well and and all the things and It just warms
my heart to see the impact that you've paid across
the world. So for people that aren't familiar with you
and the story and this box that the world is
trying to put you in, walk us through some of that.
So I was born with the ver syndrome that doesn't
(01:47):
allow me to gain weight. Um. I was born two
pounds ten ounces when I came out, I actually had
two people in six weeks early because the doctor said
that I had stopped growing completely, so my mom had
to have an emergency C section. And when I came out,
there was no amniotic fluid around me, so I shouldn't
have come out screaming or alive, and everything was normal.
(02:10):
I was just very small, and there was nothing that
the doctors could definitively say this is what she has.
They basically just scared my parents and said she's not
going to be able to do anything in her life
on her own, and you're just gonna have to do
everything for her. So basically, from literally day one, I
was already being told I can't do anything, and so
(02:32):
my parents just said, we're going to take her home
and raise her to the best of our ability, and
that's what they did, and I wasn't officially diagnosed until
unexpectedly at the age of um. I have neo needle
pro drooid syndrome, which is made up of two things,
light boodistrict and Mark Fans. Light boodistrict just doesn't allow
me to gain weight, which we know, and mar Fans
(02:54):
affects my eyes, my bones, and my heart, and so
with my heart, I now run the risk of my
aortic bow dilating basically just getting too big, which is
the scariest thing. And so the good thing is that
we know when we're aware, and I have a great
team of doctors now, but basically that's all the causes.
So because of that, I am in a very very
small body, and I have had to deal with a
(03:15):
lot of bullying in person. When I was younger, and
when social media became a thing, it was, you know,
being teased online. And when I was seventeen, someone posted
a video of me calling me the world's uglized woman,
and there was over four million views when I found it.
I was seventeen when I found it, and all the
comments were just horrible and you know, telling me to
(03:36):
end my life, and why didn't my parents just aport
me if I was going to be so disgusting and
saying for me to put like a plastic bag over
my head when I went out, because if people saw
my face they would go blind from my ugliness. So
it was just horrible, horrible things that I sat there
and I read all the comments, I think mostly because
I was so desperate to find one that was positive
(03:59):
or one that was like so porting me, and unfortunately
I didn't find one. And so that sort of was
the biggest turning point in my life. And obviously I
didn't see that at the time, but it was one
of the biggest times where I was like, I need
to either show these people who I am or I'm
going to let them keep me inside and keep me
(04:20):
hidden away. And that's not that's not who I am. No.
I just want to commend your your parents, your family,
your friends that were surrounding you during that time, because
I'm sure you know their support also helped you know
that like, yes, you're not going to let this keep
you down, like you're going to actually use this as
(04:41):
motivation to move forward and be an advocate for anyone
facing any type of adversity. I can say it was
you know, like, oh yeah, eventually I forgave everyone and
it was fine. But it wasn't. It wasn't like that
at all. It was the process, and it took many
years for me to fully actually not only just stay
it out would but fully admit and believe myself that
(05:03):
I was forgiving these people who are saying these horrible things.
And I think that was one of the biggest lessons
I learned from that is realizing that not only did
I need to forgive them, but I needed to understand
them because they don't have the resources that I have.
Those people who are saying horrible things, they probably don't
have parents like mine, or they don't have friends like
(05:25):
mine who are showing them that this isn't right. So
I can't blame them or hold it against them because
they don't have the resources. And so I think that's
really what made me want to continue to do what
I do, because I wanted to be that resource for them.
Oh yeah, you're absolutely a resource for so many and
you know this is now your purpose in life, at
(05:47):
least one of them. Through all of this, You've found
what you're meant to be doing. So what would you
say to someone listening right now that is still trying
to figure out their purpose right now. Honestly, right now.
What my biggest things that I'm personally working on and
continuing to remind myself and tell myself is not so
to focus on what is it? When is it coming?
(06:11):
How is it going to be here? But more so
change your mindset into thinking, I know it's there, I
don't know when I'm going to find it or who's
going to show it to me, but it's going to come,
And to change just the simple mindset of the question
mark in your head to more so of an excitement
of you don't know when it's going to come, but
(06:31):
it's exciting to wake up every day and think, oh,
I'm gonna find my purpose, or my purpose is going
to find me, or my answer to some question I've
had in my mind for so long. Now all of
a sudden, I don't know when or who's going to
bring it to me, but I'm going to find out
and that answer is coming, and that's exciting. Versus I
(06:52):
don't know what I'm doing, I don't have anyone why
is this happening? So I think it's so important to
just change your mindset to know that we all have
a purpose. And it sounds corny and everyone says it,
but we truly truly have a purpose. And it doesn't
matter what age, it doesn't matter what stage in life
that you are told these things. Where you find out
(07:14):
these things, they're set and they're there, You're gonna have them.
You just have to have sort of the patients, which
I'm definitely working on having the patients, and have that
sense of excitement ready to go versus the sense of fear.
And why isn't that happening right now? So you have
a TED talk that's up on YouTube and it has
(07:36):
twelve million views basically, so let's talk about your Ted talk.
If people haven't listened to it or watched it, I
recommend they go do that, but we'll do a quick
summary here and then also what it's like for you
to have that kind of reach. I mean, the whole
thing is still crazy. I did the Ted talk in
(07:56):
two thousand thirteen, and I had started speaking professionally two
thousand eight or so, so I've been speaking for a
while up until that point, and I had got an
email to do something called ted X and I never
heard of it at the time. I thought it was spam,
so I ignored it for like a week, and then
(08:17):
they kept emailing me. And it was back when newspapers
were really a thing, and I was at home with
my parents and my dad was reading a newspaper and
saw that this Ted x Austin Women event was happening
and he was telling me about it, and right when
he said it, I was like, I got an email
from that, and he's like, are you crazy? Go tell
them You'll do it. So I did it. I still
(08:39):
didn't really know like what it was exactly. I didn't
realize that there were many speakers throughout the day and
you just do like a quick little speech. And at
that point I had developed my speaking style to where
I don't plan. I just know this is the goals,
this is a message, and somehow I start talking and
somehow I get there. And and with Ted there's lots
(09:01):
of rules, so you have to submit outlines and I
had to do it, and I had an entire speech
planned and literally right before, like when they called me
up and it introduced me, I looked at the girl
who I was planning with, who I had only met
once ever, and I said, do you trust me? And
she said yes, and I said, well, I'm I'm going
to throw away everything we talked about, just just trust
(09:24):
me and going up and speaking about how do you
define yourself? I don't know where that came from. I've
never spoken on that in my life. There's a part
if you watch it, where I lose my train of
thought and it's so genuine because I was just talking.
So to see that that's specific speech went viral in
(09:45):
less than two weeks when it was posted, and to
see that it took my career to a whole another
level was unbelievable. You know, that makes me think of
like TED Talks have have changed a lot of people's lives,
including Burnet Brown. I mean, she's someone that after she
gave her TED talk at complete changed the trajectory of
you know what she was doing still at the core,
doing a lot of her research and all of that.
(10:07):
So it's interesting to hear that it changed your career
as well. So let's focus on that the topic that
came to you organically as you're walking onto the stage,
how do you define yourself at that specific event. There's
a goal in Austin that's an all girls private school
and they had them bust In for that specific event,
(10:28):
and they had like pillows and blankets and stuff for
them on the floor, so they were right in front
of me on stage, and then all around was like
the tables and the women and all that kind of stuff.
And so going up and talking about how to define yourself,
I remember very very vividly as I was deciding to
just do my own thing, telling myself, pretend you're talking
(10:48):
to your best friend, and having those girls in the
front and the way that they were looking at me,
I think I just went into their mindset and started thinking, like,
how do you define yourself? How do you see yourself?
And throughout my speech, I think I was I surprised
myself with my answer because I'm I'm very into my
faith and I always sort of just let God speak
(11:09):
through me whenever I go on stage, and it's just
become such a comfort and so natural for me, and
so going out there and just expressing like, this is
who I am, this is how I define myself as
someone who the world is trying has been trying for
so long, so hard to define me and put me
in a certain category that I refused to stay in.
And so for me to be able to show the
(11:32):
world like you can't tell me who I am. This
is who I am, this is how I figured it out,
this is how I'm going to do it, and now
I'm able to talk about that in my speeches. Okay,
So when it comes to defining ourselves, basically we are
in charge of that. What you're saying is we cannot
let others in the world do that for us. It
is up to us. And gosh, Lizzie, I mean, you
(11:54):
have had to deal with so much and the amount
of grace that you've had to extend to other people,
and the patience is wild to me. And I know
you've admitted to sometimes it's hard, and I appreciate your honesty.
But something I want to circle back to that you
said a minute ago was the reframing. Like I've never
had somebody tell me to reframe something as excitement of
(12:19):
the unknown instead of keeping it a question mark, just
make it more of like a fun mystery of like
we get to be a part of this journey and
this exciting stuff is going to happen. I mean, I
know it's hard for somebody if they're if they're in
some lows, and I don't think either one of us
(12:39):
is saying, don't be in those low moments by any
means and and fake yourself out. I'm sure you still
deal with the people online that are super cruel. So
let's say you have a day where you're just inundated
with a lot. Do you have some self care or
some practices that you do to help make sure you're
taking care of those emotion because you do need to
(13:00):
recognize them as they come up. Yeah, I mean, I
would say pre quarantine, my schedule was so insane that
I never I would have the low times. But my
low times were on an airplane when it was like
I couldn't go anywhere and I was thinking about something.
But then I would planned and then I'm distracted and
I'm busy. But over this past year, I was in
my house and it was me and my two dogs
(13:23):
and that's it, and that's where we were all the time.
And I had social media, which was great, but it
was also hard at the same time because I didn't
have anything else to distract me from these comments or
thinking about life or whatever it was that was going
on in my head. And so I had to learn
to let those days happen where I was like, today
(13:44):
I'm sad and I don't care who knows it. I'm
not gonna hide it, even if I'm posting it on
social media. I'm going to be honest because for so
long I thought I needed to be that positive person
that I put myself out there to be seven even
though I was in that way and there were times
where I was hitting rock bottom, but I was still
on my phone and saying, like it gets better, things
(14:07):
are great while I'm falling as I'm typing, and I
realized how unhealthy that was for me. And it wasn't
me being true to everyone else, like I mean, especially
to myself. But really this past year realizing like I
am sad today and that's okay, and I'm going to
stay in a dark room. I'm gonna listen to sad music.
I'm going to express however it is I need to feel.
(14:30):
But also I really implemented how can I allow myself
to feel those things? But how am I going to
pick myself back up again? And I really held myself
accountable for that because it's so easy to just let
yourself feel sad and then just stay in bed and
then roll into the next day and you're still feeling
those emotions and you it gets harder and harder to
(14:53):
pick yourself back up again. So I had to find
little random things, whether it was I ordered a Lego
set for the first time since I was like a kid,
and I ordered the friends Um coffee Shop. Yes, I
saw Jennifer Garner doing that one I think on Instagram. Yes,
it made me the whole thing. Like I, if I
(15:14):
start something, I have to finish it, even if it
takes me forever. So having this concentration on this one
little thing was such a big help. So doing legos
or doing like adult paint by numbers, like random things
really really really helped me pick myself back up again
and remind me that there is something else to focus
(15:34):
on rather than whatever it is I was going through.
I love that, and I'll just piggyback or listeners maybe new,
maybe old. But that's exactly what puzzles did for me.
I never was a puzzle person until it was kind
of something that was my form of going through some
some hard times, and that is what I needed to
(15:54):
sort of recover and and dig out. Same with the
bird watching. So like bursts and puzzles, but I might
have to try the adult. Like I said, now I'm
suddenly intrigued by that. I had seen people posting about
it online, but now you've got me curious. And then
you have so many people that are following you and
watching you, and I do think you do a great
job of keeping that balance and keeping it real. And
(16:16):
I'll get vulnerable here for a second and tell people
that right before I got on this zoom with Lizzie, like,
I was having a little bit of a meltdown and
when I clicked the video thing, I was trying to recover.
But I was already five minutes late to our zoom
because of my little breakdown, and I knew I could
tell I had been crying, but I felt safe with
you because I have known you. And then I thought,
(16:38):
oh no, should I just reschedule? But then I was
also so excited to talk with you, and I want
to respect your time, and I didn't want to have
to move it. But yeah, I just want people to
know that we all go through things, and we're all
just trying to get through the day sometimes and get
everything done that we need to get done. You know,
it's so funny. I don't want to interrupt you, but
(16:59):
with you saying like feeling comfortable. I have to tell
you this, So do you have like a comfort show
or like a comfort movie or something that like you
just here. And for me it's still Magnilias, Like hearing
still Magnolias is like my anxiety calm thing. I don't
even have to watch it, just listen to it. But
the show love my comfort for so long and since
(17:23):
I've been listening since I was in middle school. Just
hearing your voices is something that helped me, especially when
I started traveling a lot and traveling out of the country.
I went download old podcast and it was just something
that made me feel so safe and like I was
at home. And so I think it's so nice that
(17:44):
it's a good reminder that like, even during my heart times,
that someone would feel safe, you know, with me, and
so with you. I hope you know that you're that
same comfort for a lot of people, not just me,
and by show, just for anyone listening. She's talking about
the Bob b Bones show from from back in the day,
just to you know, clarify and yeah, you've been such
(18:07):
a huge supporter for so long, and so yeah, that's
why I was super special to have you on the
podcast today. So if I had to think of a
show that brings me comfort, it probably is friends, you know,
since you bring them up with the little lego thing.
But Steel Magnolia's is one of my favorite movies ever.
I recorded Mike D's movie podcast. I don't think it's
(18:29):
hearing until July, but I run ahead and recorded the episode,
and he asked me my three favorite movies from my childhood.
And I don't know. I had an older sister, and
I guess my parents didn't really monitor really what we watched,
But my top three are Steel Magnolia's, Pretty Woman and
Dirty Dancing. I was just talking to my friend about
(18:50):
this because I was telling her my top three favorite
movies are so sad and so depressing that I only
watched like seventy five of them, so I don't watch
the ending, but there's still Magnolias in terms of endearment
and beaches and so like, they're all like the status
movies possible. I don't know why I'm not like a
sad person. I feel like I'm a happy person, but
(19:13):
I just love those movies. Is there anything that you
would recommend that we need to be watching right now,
whether it's a movie you recently saw or a TV
show that you're loving. I feel like all my recommendations
are like sad and dark, and I don't want anyone
to watch anything that's sad and dark. Okay, Well, if
you if you think of something, I don't know. I
don't know what I'm saying about, Like I'm sharing about
(19:35):
myself right now, that's okay. People, Well, I mean, I
know we've been talking about the Bobby Bones Show, and
you know Bobby well enough to know that like sad music.
He listens to that to almost feel happy in a
weird way. I mean, I get it. I get it.
It's a thing. So in the first thing, Lizzie, you
(19:57):
mentioned that at seventeen, experienced this video that went up
and there was four million views by the time you
had seen it, and there was all of these comments.
And I know that there was recently, and I say recent,
more recent than when you were seventeen, something that happened
with TikTok and just also over all these years, how
(20:18):
you've gone from bullying to helping empower people and educate
people for that matter. So can you share with us
what happened with TikTok and then what inspired you to
kind of continue pursuing what you're already doing. The whole
TikTok thing was so out of the blue, and I
did not realize that it was going to get as
(20:39):
big as it did, um which normally happens in my
life where I just say something and then sort of
it just goes. But I, just like everyone else in Quarantine,
downloaded TikTok, and I was one of those people that
was like, I'm not going to do it, and then
I did it, and then I couldn't stop. And I
remember seeing a trend where the videos like someone in
looks like you're on a FaceTime call, so it's like you,
(21:02):
and then the little square photo photo in the corner
where it's someone else. And I saw it. And it's
weird that I, when I see certain things, like something
just tells me I'm going to be a part of it,
and it comes through every time. And so I saw
it and I took a screenshot of it, and I
didn't tell anyone, and I just you know, went on
to whatever it as I was doing, and I thought,
(21:24):
someone's going to use my photo. I know what's going
to happen, and sure enough, it was like eleven o'clock
at night, and someone tagged me in the comments and
it was a mom. I think it was around the
time school was supposed to be starting, and it was
a mom who put one of my photos from Google.
It was like an old photo in the corner of
the screen, and she said to her son, this is
(21:45):
going to be your new teacher, knowing the kid was
going to have a certain reaction, and so she showed
her son the photo and it was me, and the
kid made like a scared, scared face, like a scared reaction,
and so I I looked through the other videos. It
was photos of babies who had down syndrum, and it
(22:05):
was photos of just all different kinds of people. And
I saw it and I was so upset, and I
remember texting my friends and just like I knew this
was gonna happen. And I tried to go to sleep,
and I couldn't sleep. I just kept thinking about it.
And I wasn't mad for myself at all. I was
mad because they were using other people's photos and they
(22:29):
don't have the platform that I do, and I wanted
to say something, and so I got up and I
put on my Choose Joy sweatshirt and I put it
on and it was like two o'clock in the morning,
I think, and put my contact in, set my phone up,
and I basically just told parents, like, this isn't funny.
This lesson is not okay for you to be showing
(22:51):
your kids that it's okay to laugh at someone who
looks different. And so I posted that and I went
to sleep, and I woke up the next day and
it was everywhere. I'm very impressed by your ability to
be in a situation like that and to want to
use your platform for good and to you know, yeah,
throw on that that Choose Joy hoodie and set out
(23:13):
to like really make a difference. Did you ever end
up talking with that mom? That's the first photo that
was used, and so what happened with that? I did, Uh.
We started messaging and she apologized, and I actually talked
to two different moms because there was another mom who
did it after that, like after it sort of went everywhere,
she still didn't. And so basically with both of them,
(23:36):
it was me saying, I'm not doing this to attack
you and call you out. I'm doing this so that
it could stop for everyone else because this isn't okay,
and basically just reiterating why this isn't okay. But also
I had that inside frustration of I should not have
to be explaining this to another adult. And that's where
like it sort of just makes me, makes me so angry,
(23:58):
and and there are times where I find these things
and I get really angry and I get mad for
myself for a little while. But then it's sort of
like this lesson that I feel like I need to
teach people. But there are certain times where I'll get
certain things and it hits me personally, and then it
makes me very angry. And that happened about a year
ago when I was sent on Instagram. You know, if
(24:22):
like you post a story and you can reply to
that person through the message. I didn't. Accidentally, the person
who replied to my story was a news anchor. I
found out it was a verified account, and I think
they meant to forward my story to a friend, but
they sent it to me directly and their response was God,
(24:44):
that's ugly, and it was a story of me, and
it was a verified account, and so I saw it
and I was so angry, Like the second I saw it,
I was so angry and then I was like, who
is this? And then I went and I saw that
it was the news anchor and then I saw that
he was a dad with daughters, and I was so mad.
(25:07):
And it was in October, during anti bowling month, and
I'm like, oh, this is this? Is it? Like I
have to say something. And normally, if if I get
something from like like a kid or you know, not
verified person, I will cover their any way for anyone
to find out, I cover it. But this was a
verified person and I was pretty mad, and so I
posted it and I basically said, I'm telling myself that
(25:31):
you didn't need to send this to me and it
was an accident, but I saw it and this isn't okay.
And maybe the next time you replied to someone you
sort of think about your words before you send it.
And oh my gosh, it went everywhere and it was
it was crazy, and the news station reached out to
me and they wanted me to go on and talk
with him on air about this, and it was just like, no,
(25:54):
thank you. Did you ever speak with him like d
M one on one or per Sally, Did he try
to reach out and apologize? Yeah? He did. He tried.
He messaged me, but I don't and it didn't reply.
I don't think it was a long time ago. I
don't think I replied. But he did message mean apologize
and said he has daughters and he wants to do
the right thing and stuff. But to do the right thing,
(26:16):
you don't do it in the first Yeah, I mean,
and it's too perfect that that happened during anti bullying months.
I mean, it's like you're handed this gift to pass
around to teach people. Okay, this is a perfect example
of bullying because it's not even like he was trying
to be public about it. He was sending it to
a friend. And I think it's just a reminder too
(26:38):
of how we can speak about people that we don't
even know behind their backs. And I mean, I mean,
not regarding you, but they're Okay, a lot of different
things that we do that I know that I'm certainly
guilty of, and you don't think it's harming anybody, and
you're talking with your best friends, so it's like, oh,
you know, but yeah, just to second guess anything that
(27:00):
you're going to say to someone else, like is this uplifting?
Is this positive? Is this worth really saying kind of
good to have a little checklist for yourself before you
type something or speak something. I do have a Lizzie quote?
Can I read it? Is regarding you know, similar topic,
(27:20):
the new teacher challenge. I believe so you said, if
you are an adult who has a young human in
your life, please do not teach them that being scared
of someone who doesn't look like them is okay. This
is a trend that needs to stop. Because we are humans,
we have feelings. I remember saying that, Yeah, it's such
(27:41):
simple words, easy for everybody to understand for sure, but
yet for some people it's just so hard to grasp
the concept of like, oh, yeah, this person has feelings too,
and you know they was saying like, if you prick me,
I will bleed. I feel as though sometimes people forget
that people behind the screen, or even us like on
(28:03):
the radio, or you behind all of you know, your
social media stuff and things you have going on, that
you are very real and you have very real feelings. Yeah.
I mean, I'm sure you've you've gotten this before. Where
someone will they in their mind they're telling you something nice,
but it comes off looks not nice at all to you.
(28:25):
And then you sort of you just get defensive right away,
even though you know they didn't mean it in a
mean way. And so it's kind of that mental thing
of like going back and forth of like, how do
I react to this in a nice way even though
I'm really offended by that. So I've I've had that
before in person, where it's like someone will come up
to me and they're like, you know, even though you're
(28:47):
not that pretty on the outside, you still have the
biggest heart, and you're like Jesus, and I'm like, Okay,
it doesn't cancel out. It's not nice what I like,
I'm most speechless right now that someone has come up
to you and said that, Lizzie, it's happened. I mean,
I instantly smile because this doesn't happening, but it's happened before.
(29:15):
I don't even know other than like right now, if
you're listening, don't ever say that to anybody. I feel
like though my my listeners already know that, I feel
like I have pretty kind of yeah. Yeah, don't don't
start a compliment with something negative because it just doesn't
end well, it's just not work at all. Okay, Well,
thank you for all that you do towards educating and
(29:37):
helping people learn and helping people unlearn. I feel like
that that's a big thing, and you know, just reaching
kids and adults on a level that you're just really
making a difference and I love that you're dedicated to it,
and I just I enjoy watching you grow. So thank
you for guiding us, like helping us be better. I
(30:00):
feel like I learned so much from following you, which
I think I said your Instagram earlier was little Lizzie,
but it's at little Lizzie V. So I wanted to
correct that because in the beginning I said little Lizzie.
So I want to make sure people go follow you
and they followed the correct account. And trust me, you
will be empowered by Lizzie for sure, because she's amazing. So, Lizzie,
(30:36):
we've talked about some difficult moments for sure on the
podcast today. They have already happened to you. Some I'm
still gasping about. But how are you able to kind
of stay true to who you want to be in
those moments and you know, use them for good and
like see them as okay, like this is a teaching moment,
Like how are you able to stay the course. I
(30:58):
let my parents because I have a younger brother, lister,
well they're not They're not younger, they're adults. But um,
I'm the oldest, and they've raised us exactly the same,
the three of us, and I have a role for
myself that I'm exactly the same in front of twenty
people than I am just looking at you and talking
(31:19):
right now. I cannot pretend I'm anyone else because it
just feels uncomfortable. And any time that i'm I see
where this is like a teaching moment or whatever. I
got that from my dad. My dad was in education
for thirty two years. He just retired, and he was
an elementary school principle at my elementary the entire time
(31:40):
I was there, and I remember there are so many
times where we would either be at school or out
in public and I would see people staring in My
automatic response was to, like, you know, hide behind someone
else or just pretend I didn't see it. And he
would always go up to the person or whoever was
and basically just say, this is my daughter, Lizzie. Do
(32:02):
you want to meet her? Versus stop staring at my daughter.
You don't know what's wrong with her or whatever. It
was always something positive, and so I look at that,
and that's sort of how I am now where if
something's happening, if I'm with other people, my instinct is to,
you know, make it like normal and casual and introduce
(32:23):
myself or whatever. But if I'm by myself, I respond
completely differently. I don't know why, but pre pandemic, I
traveled a ton by myself, and I have this sense
of confidence and I can, you know, go through an
airport and do what I need to do by myself.
But also it's like I feel like I need to
prove myself to people who I feel like are staring
(32:46):
at me. And I don't know if they're staring at
me just to stare or they recognize me, but in
my mind, they're staring at me to stare. And so
I'm walking and I don't feel like I have the
same sense of confidence that I do if I'm walking
with someone else that I know. So it's I want
to be very honest about that. I do try to
take advantage of a situation and you know, make things
(33:07):
positive and make it a teaching moment. But if I'm
by myself, I feel completely different, and so do teaching
moments mostly come are you saying when you're with other people?
Because I feel more confident. I don't know why, because
I will react the exact same because if I need
to say something when I'm by myself, I'll react the
same way. But I just don't feel like I can
(33:28):
do it by myself, which is weird. Yeah, I kind
of feel like I see you doing it by yourself.
So maybe I don't know I'm having like a premonition
or like I see it actually happening. Like I know
that it's difficult to say something, but I see maybe
you one day growing into that person and not in
a rude way, but in like a very thoughtful kind way.
(33:51):
And it's a goal. It's it's like I'm working towards it.
Do you make vision boards or anything like that, Yes,
but I just started doing them in a different way.
So I am developing a kid series right now, and
I have very big plans for this kid series. And
I had magnets made of where I'm envisioning this show
(34:14):
to live, and so I had them made in some magnets,
So I see the magnets every day of like my
show is going to be on this, or my show
is going to be on this. Okay, So like actually
like magnets, like they go on your fridge, like I
had them printed yet, and so is that that's where
you keep them? Do you move them around in your
fridge or in another room or like where I'm just
(34:36):
right now, they're all on my fridge. But my other
thing is, I know this doesn't really count as like
a vision board, but it's like list lists of like anything.
So anytime like I I say this is going to happen,
or I want this to happen, or if I have
a random idea, whether it's just a word or a
phrase or whatever it is, I write it down. So
I have lists like random lists all over. Yeah, it's
(34:59):
not a you know, you're not like cutting things out
of a magazine and making a vision board, which you're
actually like putting pen to paper and you're focusing on it.
I've talked about the Steve Harvey story before on the
podcast that it was a few years ago, but he
was on Oprah's Super Soul Conversation or maybe it was
Oprah's master Class. I can't remember exactly when and where
(35:20):
I heard it, but he's told it multiple times, but
his teacher told him he was never going to be
on TV. In fact, I think it was a homework
assignment like at school, what do you want to do
when you grow up? And he and I'm paraphrasing the
whole thing, by the way, so going from memory here,
but he basically was like, I'm gonna be on TV.
And she kind of got onto him like go home
and do this homework assignment correctly. You can't know you're
(35:42):
not gonna be on TV. And so he got a
bad grade for it or whatever, and his dad sort
of got onto him, was like, oh no, you're going
to be on TV. And his dad's the one that
was like, you write this down, put it in his
room and he looked at it every day, like I'm
going to be on TV. And then once he got famous,
(36:02):
and he went through a lot of loans before he
made it high and made it big. His story is
actually pretty fascinating, but every year for Christmas, once he
was rich and famous, he sent that teacher a TV.
Oh my gosh, it's like the best thing to do.
I have a similar story to that, except it was
(36:23):
my mom, my mom who did it for me. I
didn't know that she did this. But when I was
a freshman in college, I went to Texas State, so
Sin Marcus, so you know, not that far from Austin.
It was my first time to be on my own
and away from my parents, and like, I can do this,
I can be independent. And so I went and it
was my second semester. I came home for the weekend.
(36:45):
You know, I had my suitcase, went back to my
dorm and I was unpacking. And when I was unpacking,
there was a thick Manila envelope and it had like
two composition books and a spiral, and I didn't know
what it was. And I opened it and they were
letters that my mom started writing me from when I
was born until middle school. Every day she wrote me
(37:08):
a letter in these journals of what I did that day,
if I was sick, if I was bad, you know,
any little thing. And I was a mess, Like I
was crying so hard reading these letters. I had like
a towel wiping my tears away. And there was one
letter that I got to that said, I don't know
(37:30):
when I'm going to give you these letters, but I'm
going to give them to you one day. And I
hope and I pray that when I give you these letters,
you're reading them in your college dorm room. And I
was at the desk in my room. I get and
it was just like the most incredible manifesting moment. Yeah,
(37:51):
thanks for sharing that story, and thanks for sharing this
your your magnet idea. Some people might take that and
run with it. How did you figure out a company
that makes magnets? Did you just google it? So when
I moved into my house like three years ago, I
really wanted magnets and googled it. And there's an app
called Social Print Studio, I think, and they do all
(38:14):
different sizes so you can just put your photos and
they mail them to you. How perfect. I think that's
a great idea for adults, kids, anything that you want,
so that you have that visual every day and you
can even move them around, rearranged them. I worked with
It was before the pandemic, so it kind of lost
some steam. But I learned that I had been on
(38:36):
someone's refrigerator vision board guarding an adoption project that was
in the works. And turns out one of her friends
ended up dating my dad for a little bit, so
then she got away to meet me and when I
finally met with her and we had a meeting, and
I love the work that she was doing. She later
(38:56):
confessed to me that I had been on her refrigerator
for a while, and I just thought that was interesting.
I never knew I had been on somebody's refrigerator. But
all that to say not that like, oh hey, I
was on someone's vision board, but I was on refrigerator
and she was trying to find a way to meet me,
and then we never So yeah, it's a thing. When
(39:17):
I like I was teaching myself how to be a
motivational speaker, I watched all of these videos and do
you know who Bill Ransick is? Yes, Juliana's husband. Okay,
so he was my speaker idol, and I like watched
all of his stuff and like studied his website like
such a nerd. And I watched this one speaker video
(39:37):
he did where he was standing in the like the
center of a stage and there was like thousands of
people around him, and I was like, I'm going to
do that, And I know I made it. Why I
thought that was the thing? I know I made it.
When I'm standing like a Bill in the center stage
surrounded by people and I did it, and I was like,
I had that moment, and eventually I I had lunch
(40:00):
with him and I was like, I have to tell
you story. Um, I studied you and I told myself
I'd make it. I sounded so crazy, but it works.
Tell yourself you can do these things. Who is the
person you've been most excited to meet on your journey
with all of this? By all of this, I mean
your your life journey, I think I think the one
(40:22):
that I've become the closest with, like genuinely become really
close friends with that I would say most grateful four
versus most excited because this was very random, but it
is even men debts. Yeah, so she is incredible. So
she invited me to a fashion week things she did
(40:45):
a few years ago. Yet again I thought it was
a joke. I have to stop thinking things or jokes.
But I also didn't pay attention to that one because
I was like, there, even Mendes is not inviting me
to like a fashion show in New York like this what?
And it was it was actually her, But anyway, my
whole point is that she's just the most genuine, down
to earth, amazing, amazing person. Yeah, she does seem super nice.
(41:08):
Who she with Ryan Gosling? Did you get to meet him?
You did? Okay, Okay, all right, so I can tell
you more about that. Okay, so we'll talk about that offline.
So wait, that sounds bad, but you know what, I know,
I know what you mean. I don't think you mean
anything bad at all. I'm still laughing that Bill ran
(41:28):
Sick as your speaker, idol, not for not for any reason,
Like I'm sure he's amazing. I just had never I
never even knew that he was a speaker. It was
because him and Julianna had their show at the time,
and he wasn't an entrepreneur and doing a lot of
speeches about entrepreneur stuff. And when I googled how to
be a motivational speaker, he just was like in all articles,
(41:52):
and so he's the one that came up. So he
was the chosen one. I picked him because he was
popular at the time, and like, I want to be
Bill Ransick of all people. I love that. I actually
love where this thing went. I know we started off
talking about teaching moments, but I definitely can appreciate when
a conversation just goes somewhere totally random. And now anytime
(42:15):
I see Bill Ransick, I'm gonna kind of laugh a
little and think of you, my idol. All right, Lizzie,
you know we are big on gratitude here, and I'm
pretty sure you have one o our four things gratitude journals.
(42:38):
I've seen you post about it before, which is super
sweet of you to do. So we're going to wrap
things up with four things that you are currently thankful
for today. So I am completely independent in all aspects
of my life, but I can't drive because I'm blind
in one eye. And so the fact that I can't
you know, hop in my car and to the grocery
(43:00):
store to get something or you know, do anything like that,
it really really got me for a really long time
because I was ashamed and embarrassed by that. But now
I've gotten the courage to take an uber to go
do a random errand that I need to do. So
the fact that I don't have to depend on someone
to take me to do a random errand, Um, I
(43:21):
got to do that today. And it's been so long
since I've been able to safely get in an uber
because of the pandemic and so being able to have
that tiny sense of independence back. I'm so grateful for
so so grateful for that. I think the other thing
is I this is also random. I wear one contact
(43:43):
because I can see at a one eye, so I
have one contact, but I also have to wear reading glasses,
and I lost my reading glasses. I have no idea
where they are. But I'm grateful that I have other
humans that I can face time and call and have
them read me random things that I can't see, because
it happens so like measuring things. If I can't see that,
(44:05):
then I have to like FaceTime a friend and say,
I don't want to talk to you. I just need
you to know what this says. And that's what do
you say? I don't want to talk to you, I
just need you to read this to me. I don't
really want to have a conversation. I just need to
know what this sus. Sometimes there's something like possible dangerous
situations where I'm cooking and I say is this fully
(44:25):
cooked or not, which you know I should probably not do,
but I've done. And I think the third thing would
be my house every day. I think I'm still surprised
that I live here, and that I'm able to have
this space. I'm so so grateful for it and the
fact that there's just so many people who aren't in
this situation, especially with this past year. And every day
(44:49):
I wake up and it's like it's it's new and
it's exciting. And I've been here for three years, but
every day it's just like this sense of security and
happiness that I have, even though I've gone crazy being
here for so long. And I think the fourth thing.
The fourth thing is my dogs. Not many people know this,
(45:10):
but I got my first dog, Ali. He saved my life.
I had a documentary premier south By Southwest in two
thousand and fifteen, UM, and right after we had finished filming,
I absolutely hit rock bottom, completely hit rock bottom. And
it was during a time where I was traveling out
(45:30):
of the country for the first time, I was speaking
to the biggest audiences. I was literally having the movie
made about my life, and I was having thoughts of
not wanting to be here. And despite everything in my
life that's happened, I've never had those doughts until that time,
and so I had an overwhelming amount of guilt on
(45:50):
me because I was living my dream. But I was
in the worst place of my life mentally and emotionally,
and I got dangerously good at hiding it. And during
all of that time, I started living on my own.
I had my own apartment at the time, and I
had always had a roommate. Was my first time alone,
(46:10):
and so I was just not in a good place.
And I got a dog on my own for the
first time, and I didn't know how to have a
dog on my own, but he became the reason why
I had to get out of bed every morning because
he depended on me. And so now I have two
dogs and they're just my whole entire world. Well, thank
(46:31):
you for sharing them of the backstory of why is
it Ali saved your life? I mean, that's definitely not
an easy thing probably to revisit and say out loud again,
but thank you for sharing that and even the you
were dangerously good at hiding it, because I think that's
also just another reminder of like, you never know what
(46:53):
someone is really going through, and you may think you
know because maybe they do have X y Z going
on that are all pretty amazing, fabulous stuff or things
or opportunities like everything you would have ever hoped for,
right right, But yeah, you were still at a lowe.
I was broken, completely broken. Yeah, so God gave you Ali?
(47:14):
How did you find Ali? How did you all end
up together? My mom suggested I get a dog, and
everyone else was like, no, this isn't the right time.
It's going to be too much. And I reached out
to a family at our church who had posted that
they were looking to read home one of their dogs.
And it was Ali. And he had a different name,
(47:34):
and I'm like, I'm not going to call him that name.
It was weird. I don't remember what it was, but
it was such a weird name. Uh. And it turned
out he was two years old and he had already
been in three different homes, and just that broke me.
And I was like, come here to me. I don't
know how to have a dog. You're probably stronger than me,
but come here to me. And I did everything without
(47:56):
telling anyone. I saw, I had all I come over,
didn't tell anyone, and I loved him. I had to
leave to Vegas to speak, came back and Ali came
to live with me. And so what kind of dog
is Ali? He's a ship, Sue, and your other dog
is I don't want to leave the other dog out.
She's a ship suit as well, So Ali's all white
and Olivia is all black, and I couldn't think of
another name. So I've all heard a living because I'm
(48:19):
that creative. I love it. Well, Lizzie, thank you so
much for coming on and talking about all of this.
And I hope people go follow you if they aren't already.
And you have written four books, yeah, which is so amazing.
So I'll be linking all four of your books on
my Amazon page so it's an easy place for people
(48:41):
to find them. Just radio amy dot com for that.
But the titles of your books, I love them, so
I'm going to read them, thanks, Lizzie. Beautiful is the
first one. Be Beautiful Be You this second one. Choosing
Happiness is the third, and then Dare to Be Kind
How Extraordinary Compassion can transform Our World. And that's the
(49:03):
latest book, and I mean that title in itself, that
was my favorite. That's where I chose to disclose everything
about hitting rock bottom, so everything that I went through
is in there. And then also there's a chapter called
how a dog named all You saved my life, and
then that's about how I got back up again. I
appreciate you sharing your story and even your Ted Talk.
(49:27):
People should go watch that again. Basically twelve million views,
which is insane. So um incredibly proud and honored to
call you a friend and thank you for being a
safe space for me. Of course, thanks for having me
Feeling Things with Amy & Kat News
Host
Amy Brown
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