虽然这个时代“以瘦为美”，我们总想着能瘦一点，再瘦一点，但如果真的瘦到皮包骨，那还真不是一件好事，比如这个叫Lizzie Velasquez的女孩。她身高1米57，体重约27公斤，右眼发蓝且已失明，另一只眼睛是棕色的。她的身体无法储存脂肪，要吃60顿饭，她的怪病全球只有三例，她被称为“骷髅女孩”……而她的生活本身就是一场华丽的逆袭！她也有选择快乐的权利。

演说者：Lizzie Velasquez

演说题目：如何定义你自己！

I m really, really, really excited to be here.I kind of want to tell you。a little bit more of the - I don t want to say basics -because we really don t know anything about my syndrome.

今天能够站在这里，让我感到非常的雀跃。我想告诉你们关于我的病--我不想说一些基本的--因为所有人对这个综合症一无所知。

I was born with this very rare syndrome,that only two other people in the world including myself, that we know of, have.

我天生就患有一种很稀有的综合症，这世界上，只有另外两位，包括我在内，知道我们罹患这样的综合症。

Basically what this syndrome causes, is that I cannot gain weight.Yes, it does sound as good as it is.I could eat absolutely whatever I want, whenever I want and I won t really gain any weight.

基本上，这个综合症使我无法增重。是的，它听起来的确很好。我可以在任何时候，任何地方，大吃大喝，并且不会长胖。

I m going to be 25 in March,and I ve never weighed over about 64 pounds in my entire life.When I was in college, I hid -well, I didn t  hide  it, everyone knew it was there -

今年三月，我将会成为25岁，而我的整个人生里，从未有体重超过64磅的时刻。我在上大学的时候，我试图掩藏——好吧，我没有掩藏，所有人都知道它的存在——

but it was a giant tub of Twinkies, donuts, chips, Skittles,and my roommate would say, "I could hear you at 12:30 am,reaching under your bed to get food."But I m like, "You know what? It s alright, I can do these things!"

我所说的它是一大包的奶油夹心饼，甜甜圈，薯片以及彩虹糖。而我的室友会说： “凌晨12点半的时候，我能够听见你——伸手到床底下拿食物吃。”但是我说：“你知道吗？那有什么？我完全可以这样做！”

Because there are benefits to this syndrome.There are benefits to not being able to gain weight.There are benefits to being visually impaired.There are benefits to being kind of really small.

因为这是这个综合症的好处之一。无法增重有它的好处。视力有缺陷有它的好处。身材娇小也有它的好处。

A lot of people think,Lizzie, how in the world are you saying there are benefits when you can only see out of one eye?Well, let me tell you what the benefits are ，because they are great.

很多人认为，丽兹，你怎么会说，只能用一只眼睛也有它的好处？好，让我告诉你那些好处是什么。因为它们真的很不错。

I wear contacts--conTACT. Half-off conTACTS.When I wear my reading glasses: half-off prescription.If somebody is annoying me, being rude:Stand on my right side.It s like you re not even there. 

我能够佩戴隐形眼镜。 一个隐形眼镜。我佩戴眼镜时，也只需要一只眼睛的度数。当有人因不礼貌而惹怒我时，请站在我的右边。那就像你根本不存在一样。

I don t even know you re standing there.Right now, if I stand like this, I have no clue that there s this whole side of the room.Also, being small, I am very willing to volunteer myself to go to Weight Watchers or to some gym, 

我不会知道你站在那里。现在，如果我这样站着，我不会知道，这个场地里还有这个角落。还有，因为身材娇小，我可以——到健身房

and say,Hi, I m Lizzie. I will be your poster child.Put my face on whatever you need, and I will say, Hi! I used this program. Look how well it worked.

说：“嗨，我是丽兹，我会当你广告的代言人。把我的脸放上去，而我会说，嗨，我使用了这个课程，看看它的效果多么惊人。

Even though there are amazing things that have come from this syndrome,there are also things that have been very, very difficult, as you can imagine.Growing up, I was raised 150% normally.I was my parents  first child.

虽然这个综合症能够带来很多很棒的事情，但是，其中也有非常困难的事情，正如你能想象的。在成长的过程中，我的父母一直将我像正常的小孩一样养育长大。我是家里的第一个孩子。

And when I was born, the doctors told my mom,Your daughter has no amniotic fluid around her.At all.So when I was born, it was a miracle that I came out screaming.

我出生时，医生告诉我母亲，“你的女儿没有羊水的保护。”完全没有。所以我能够嚎啕大哭地来到这个世界，本身就是一种奇迹。

The doctors told my parents,We just want to warn you: Expect your daughter to never be able to talk, walk, crawl, think, or do anything by herself.

医生告诉我父母，“我们想让你们做好心理准备， 你们的女儿可能永远无法自己走路，说话，爬行或者是做任何事情。

Now, as first-time parents, you would think that my parents would say,;Oh no. Why? Why are we getting our first child with all these unknown problems?But that s not what they did.

初为人父人母，你会认为我的父母会说：“为什么？为什么随着我们第一个孩子的到来的，是这些如此棘手的问题？”但是他们并没有这么说。

The first thing they told the doctor was,We want to see her, and we are going to take her home and love her, and raise her to the best of our abilities.And that s what they did.I credit pretty much everything that I ve done in my life to my parents.

他们告诉医生的第一件事，就是"我们想见她。我们会把她带回家。好好爱她，并尽所能抚养她长大。”他们真的这样对待我。我将我这一生的成就都归功于我的父母。

My dad is here with me today, and my mom is at home watching.Hi mom! She s recovering from surgery.

我的父亲今天就在现场，而我的母亲在家里看着。嗨，妈妈！她正从手术中恢复。

She has been the glue that s held our family together,and she s given me the strength to see that she s going through so much,but she has this fighting spirit that she s instilled in me,

我母亲一直是维系家庭的粘合剂。看见她经历这么多事情，给了我很多的力量,因为我继承了她那勇于奋斗的精神，

so that I have proudly been able to stand in front of people and say,You know what? I ve had a really difficult life.But that s okay.That s okay. Things have been scary, things have been tough.

所以今天我才能自豪地站在众人的面前，说：“你知道吗？我的日子过得很艰难。但是没关系。没关系。事情是很可怕，很煎熬。”

One of the biggest things that I had to deal with growing up was something I m pretty sure every single one of us in this room has dealt with before.Can you guess what that is?

其中一样事情在我的成长过程中，我必须面对——我确定——在这个房间里的每一个人都曾经经历过的——你们能猜出来那是什么吗？它是以 B 字母开头的。

It starts with a  B . Can you guys guess it?Audience: Boys! Lizzie: Boys?Bullying!I know what you all are thinking.Why can t I sit here with them? 

观众：“Boys(男孩）!”  丽兹：“Boys(男孩）?”欺凌！我知道你们在想什么。为什么我不能和他们坐在一起？

I had to deal with bullying a lot, but as I said, I was raised very normally,so when I started kindergarten,I had absolutely no idea that I looked different.No clue.I couldn t see that I looked different from other kids.

我常常会面对欺凌事件，但正如我所说的，我像正常人一样被抚养长大，所以当我开始上幼儿园时，我完全没有意识到，我长得和别人不一样。完全没有。我看不见，我和其他小孩有什么不同之处。

I think of it as a big slap of reality for a five year-old,because I went in to school the first day, decked-out in Pocahontas gear.I was ready!

对于一位五岁的小孩，我觉得那是来自现实的一巴掌。因为在入学的第一天，我穿着宝嘉康蒂风的服装。我已经准备好一切！

I went in with my backpack that looked like a turtle shell because it was bigger than me,and I walked up to a little girl and smiled at her,and she looked up at me like I was a monster,like I was the scariest thing she had ever seen in her life.

我带着我的背包，因为它的体积比我还大，所以看起来像乌龟壳——我走到一个小女孩的面前，向她微笑，她抬头看了看我，仿佛看见了魔鬼——好像我是她在生命里看过最可怕的东西一样。

My first reaction was,She is really rude.I am a fun kid, and she s the one missing out.So I ll just go over here and play with blocks. Or boys.I thought the day would get better, and unfortunately, it didn t.

当下，我的反应是——她真没礼貌。我是一个非常有趣的小孩， 没能和我成为朋友，是她的损失。所以，我干脆到另一边玩积木，或者和男生一起玩。我以为，日子会变得更好，但是不幸地，并没有。

The day got worse and worse. A lot of people just wanted to have absolutely nothing to do with me, and I couldn t understand why.Why? What did I do? I didn t do anything to them!In my mind I was still a really cool kid.

日子越来越难过。 很多人只想和我没有任何关系， 而我无法理解当中的原因。为什么？我做了什么？ 我什么也没对他们做过！在我心里，我依旧是一个很酷的小孩。

I had to go home and ask my parents,What s wrong with me?What did I do? Why don t they like me?They sat me down and said,;Lizzie, the only thing different about you is that you re smaller than the other kids.

我只好回家问我的父母，“我身上有什么不对劲的吗？”“我做了什么？为什么他们都不喜欢我？”他们让我坐下，然后说：“丽兹，你和他们唯一不同的地方，只是你比其他的小孩娇小。

You have this syndrome, but it s not going to define who you are.They said,Go to school, pick your head up, smile,continue to be yourself, and people will see that you re just like them.And so that s what I did.

你的确罹患了一种综合症，但它无法定义你是谁。他们说：“到学校去，抬起头，微笑。继续当一个真正的自己，人们就会看见你和他们其实是一样的。”所以，我真的这么做。

I want you to think, and ask yourself this in your head, right now:What defines you?Who are you?Is it where you come from? Is it your background? Is it your friends?What is it?What defines who you are as a person?

我想在座的各位想想，然后自己问自己：“什么能够定义你自己？”你是谁？是你出生的地方吗？是你的背景吗？是你的朋友吗？到底是什么？作为一个独立的人，是什么能够定义你自己？

It s taken me a very long time to figure out what defines me.For so long I thought what defined me was my outer appearance. I thought that my little tiny legs,and my little arms, and my little face were ugly.I thought I was disgusting.

我花了很长的时间，才找到我的定义。有很长一段时间，我一直认为，能够定义我的是我的外表，我以为是我那弱小的双脚，弱小的胳膊，和我丑陋的面孔。

I hated when I d wake up in the morning when I was going to middle school,and would be looking in the mirror getting ready, and thinking,Can I just scrub this syndrome off?It would make my life so much easier if I could just scrub it off.

我觉得自己令人厌恶。每天醒来，我非常讨厌准备上学的时刻。我会看着镜子，想着：“我可以将这个综合症除掉吗？如果能够将它除掉，我的生活会轻松很多。

I could look like other kids; I wouldn t have to buy clothes that had Dora the Explorer on them. I wouldn t have to buy stuffthat was  Bedazzled , when I was trying to be like the cool kids.

我可以长得像其他小孩一样。我不需要购买印着‘征服者朵拉’的衣服，我不需要为了成为很酷的小孩而买一些能取悦别人的物品。

I would wish, and pray, and hope, and do whatever I could so I would wake up in the morning and be different,and I wouldn t have to deal with these struggles.It s what I wanted every single day,and every single day I was disappointed.

我会祈祷，希望有一天，当我早上醒来的时候，我会变得有所不同，那我就不必为这些困难所烦恼。每一天，我都如此祈求。而每一天，我所拥有的，只有失望。

I have an amazing support system around me,who never pity me, who are there to pick me up if I m sad,who are there to laugh with me during the good times,and they taught me that, even though I have this syndrome,even though things are hard, I can t let that define me.

我的身边，有着很强大的，支持我的力量他们从来不会同情我，但是当我难过时，他们会在我身边。会和我一同欢笑，他们教会我，即使患有这个综合症，即使日子很难过，我也不能让这些事物定义我。

My life was put into my hands, just like your lives are put into yours.You are the person in the front seat of your car.You are the one who decides whether your car goes down a bad path, or a good path.You are the one who decides what defines you.

如何生活下去是由我掌控的， 就像你们才是掌控自己如何生活的人。坐在前座驾驶汽车的是你，只有你自己才能决定车子到底往对或是错的方向行走。只有你，才能决定是什么能够定义你自己。

Now let me tell you: it could be really hard to figure out what defines you, because there were times when I d get so annoyed and frustrated, and say：I don t care what defines me!

要找到什么能够定义你自己，真的很难.因为，有时候当我真的很愤怒时，我会说：我不在乎到底什么能够定义我自己!

When I was in high school I found a video,unfortunately, that somebody posted of me,labeling me the world s ugliest woman.There were over four million views to this video; eight seconds long,no sound, thousands of comments; people saying,Lizzie, please - please - 

高中的时候，我发现了一个视频，很不幸的，那是关于我的视频，视频上对我的定义是‘世界上最丑的女人’。这个8分钟的无声视频有超过4万的点击量，上千的留言，其中有的网民说：丽兹，请你，请求你，

just do the world a favor,put a gun to your head, and kill yourself.Think about that, if people told you that,if strangers told you this.I cried my eyes out of course, and I was ready to fight back and something kind of clicked in my head,

为这个世界做一件好事，请你把枪放在你的太阳穴，然后一枪崩了自己。”你们想想，如果有人告诉你们这一番话，是陌生人告诉你们的一番话。当然，我哭红了双眼，我也准备好如何反击，忽然，我的脑海里闪过一个念头，

and I thought,I m just going to leave it alone.I started realizing that my life is in my hands.I could either choose to make this really good,or I could choose to make this really bad.

我想：“我不会执着在这件事上。”我开始发现，我的生命掌控在我自己的手里。我可以选择，让我的生活变得很好，或是让它变得很糟糕。

I could be grateful, and open my eyes and realize the things that I do have,and make those the things that define me.I can t see out of one eye, but I can see out of the other.I might get sick a lot, but I have really nice hair. 

我可以心怀感恩的张开眼睛，珍惜我所拥有的，然后让那些我拥有的定义我自己。或许我的一只眼睛无法看见这世界。 那又怎样？ 我还有另一只。我或许常常生病， 但是我拥有很健康的头发。

You do, you do!Thanks.You guys are like the best little section right here.You made me lose my train of thought!Okay... where was I?

观众：你的确有！丽兹：谢谢！你们是这个房间里最好，最贴心的一群。你们甚至让我忘了下一句要说什么！好的。。。我刚刚说到哪了？

Audience: Your hair!Hair! Hair. Ok, ok, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.So I could either choose to be happy or I could choose to be upset with what I have and still kind of complain about it,

观众：你的头发!头发！对，对，对，谢谢。所以，我可以自己选择要很快乐，还是为我所拥有的感到难过，并且抱怨。

but then I started realizing:Am I going to let the people who called me a monster define me?Am I going to let the people who said, "Kill it with fire!" define me?No; I m going to let my goals, and my success, 

但是，我想：“我要让那些喊我是魔鬼的人定义我吗？我要让那些喊着“用火把她烧掉”的人定义我吗？不，我会让我的目标，我的成就，

and my accomplishments be the things that define me - Not my outer appearance,not the fact that I m visually impaired,not the fact that I have this syndrome that nobody knows what it is.

成为定义我的事物——不是外形，不是我的视力问题，不是这个根本没人知道的综合症。

So I told myself I m going to work my butt off and do whatever I could to make myself better,because in my mind, the best way that I could get back at all those people who made fun of me, who teased me,who called me ugly, 

所以我告诉自己，我会拼了命的努力，做任何我能够做的，让自己变得更好，因为对我而言，能够报复那些取笑我的，嘲讽我的，说我长得很丑的，

who called me a monster was to make myself better, and to show them:You know what?Tell me those negative things,I m going to turn them around,and I m going to use them as a ladder to climb up to my goals.That s what I did.

说我是魔鬼的人的最佳方法，就是让我自己变得更好，从而证明给他们看，你知道吗？你们对我的那些负面想法，我会反过来利用他们，把它们当阶梯一样使用，好让我能够更接近我的目标。我是这么做的。

I told myself that I wanted to be a motivational speaker,I wanted to write a book,graduate college, have my own family, and have my own career.Eight years later, I’m standing in front of you,still doing motivational speaking.

我告诉自己，我想成为一个激励别人的讲师，我想写一本书，我想从学院毕业，拥有自己的家庭，拥有自己的事业。八年后，我站在你们的面前，依然到处举办讲座。

First thing, I accomplished it.I wanted to write a book; in a couple of weeks I will be submitting the manuscript for my third book.I wanted to graduate college, and I just finished college.

第一件事，我做到了。我想写一本书的目标，几个星期后，我将会交上我的第三本书的手稿。我说过我想从学院毕业。 不久前，我毕业了。

I m getting a degree in Communication Studies from Texas State University in San Marcos,and I have a minor in English.

我将从圣马科斯的德克萨斯州立大学获得传播学的学士学位，我将从圣马科斯的德克萨斯州立大学获得传播学的学士学位，而我副修的专业是英文。

I really, really tried to use real-life experience while I was getting my degree, and my professors were not having it.I wanted to have, lastly, my own family and my own career.

我尝试用我真实生活的经历，来拿到学位，但是我的教授没有因此而让我轻松过关。最后，我想拥有自己的家庭和事业，

The family part is kind of down the line, and my career part,I feel like I m really doing well with it, considering the fact that when I decided I wanted to be a motivational speaker, I went home,

家庭是我的计划中的最后一部分，但是关于我的事业，我认为我做得还不错，因为当我决定我想当一位讲师后，我回到家，

I sat in front of my laptop, went to Google, and typed in:How to be a motivational speaker.I m not even joking.I worked my butt off. I used the people who were telling me that I couldn t do this to motivate me.

坐在电脑面前，在谷歌的网页搜寻了：“如何成为一个励志讲师。”我不是在说笑。我非常的努力往我的目标前进。 我将别人对我的否定，转换成激励我的动力。

I used their negativity to light my fire to keep going.Use that. Use that. Use that negativity that you have in your life to make yourself better,because I guarantee you -guarantee you -You will win.

我利用他们对我的负面评语来鞭策自己继续前进。利用它！利用那些在你生命中的负面能量，来让你自己过得更好，因为我向你保证，我保证，你一定会战胜他们。

Now I want to end, with asking you again.I want you to leave here, and ask yourself what defines you.But remember:Brave starts here.Thank you.

今天结束以前， 我想让你们做一件事，我要你们在离开时，问问自己，到底什么能够定义你自己。但是切记：勇气从这里开始。谢谢。