Motivational speaker redefines what it means to be "beautiful".

Lizzie Velasquez is a 24-year-old motivational speaker who suffers from a very rare syndrome (so rare that only two other cases of it are currently known) called Neonatal Progeroid Syndrome. The condition has caused her to go blind in one eye and prevents her from gaining weight, no matter how much she eats, and accellerates aging. Lizzie eats up to 8,000 calories per day just to stay alive, typically snacking every fifteen to twenty minutes.

When Lizzie was in high school, she discovered that a classmate had put a video of her up on YouTube titled "World's Ugliest Woman". By the time she discovered it, there were already millions of views and hundreds of harsh, hurtful comments.

After watching the YouTube video, Lizzie decided she would rise above the cruelty and campaign against bullying. "I use that negativity to light my fire" she said at a TED talk in Austin last December, sharing how she decided that day to use the hatred and negativity to fuel her resolve to define herself on her own terms.

"I've had a really difficult life," she said. "But that's okay. I'm going to let my goals and my success and my accomplishments define me, not my outer appearance."

Fifth-Grade Students Rally Against Bullying of Kindergarten Peer

Danny Keefe is a kindergartener at Williams Intermediate School in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. and acts as the water boy for the fifth-grade Bridgwater Badger’s Pee Wee football team.

Shortly after birth, little Danny suffered a brain hemorrhage, which has led to a speech impediment. He also loves to wear a suit and tie to school.

Lately, Danny has been getting picked on during recess for his speech and for the way he dresses. Well, the fifth-grade football players didn’t like that, and decided they would do something about it – they organized and declared a “Danny Appreciation Day”, where 45 students came to school dressed in suits and ties to show Danny how much they love and support him.

100 people show up to have lunch with a bullied student.

Haley Parkerson, a high-school Junior at South Salem High School in Oregon, decided to turn his own experience with bullying into an awareness-raising campaign.

Persistently taunted by another student claiming that he had no friends, Parkerson’s aunt set up an anti-bullying rally of sorts, asking her local online club to show up to the school for lunch the next day on Friday, October 19^th.

The turnout was astonishing, especially given the one-day notice beforehand; approximately 100 people turned up to the school. Unaware of the event, the Principal was taken by surprise, but allowed it to continue when he learned the reason behind it.

The public display intended to raise awareness towards bullying in schools certainly had an effect – the student bullying Parkerson came up to him and personally apologized.

Since Friday, Parkerson has received support from many students at South Salem High. On his Facebook page, he’s reached out to his classmates, saying, “Thanks, guys, for standing up with me and helping me make a difference.”