Social media is a blessing for all of us. We have a platform to voice our opinions and exchange our thoughts with others. Sometimes we use it for entertainment and more often than that, it’s our medium to catch up with our loved ones. But there are always two sides to everything. While there are a lot of good things about social media, there is another dark side that can be very harmful. How you want to use this revolutionary tool is totally up to you.
Recently, a challenge called the ‘face prank challenge’ went viral on Tik-Tok. If you have not seen the videos circulating, good on you. To make it clear, this challenge uses faces of disabled people as a prank to get other people’s reaction.
Lizzie Velasquez is a motivational speaker and activist who was born with an extremely rare congenital disease called Marfanoid–progeroid–lipodystrophy syndrome. This disease among other symptoms prevents her from accumulating body fat and gaining weight. She recently took to her Instagram when she saw a video of a mother using her picture to get a reaction from her son. In her video, she requests all the parents to teach their kids to be empathetic towards everyone. She talks about how kids are so impressionable that they need the right guidance and teachings to become kind and empathetic human beings when they grow up. Here is the video she posted:
“I knew this was coming. When I saw this trend start I knew it was coming. Some have been cute and funny but then it starts to cross the line. Showing your kids a photo of someone who looks different in hopes of them having a scared reaction is vile. I’ve seen this trend be done with people who are disabled and I’ve seen this trend be done with BABIES who have Down Syndrome. They don’t have the platform to speak on this but I do and I know I have an army of positive people right next to me. I will say this over and over and over. The people you put in photos or videos are human beings!! We have feelings and we have something we work on every day called self-confidence. Please PLEASE don’t teach your children that it’s funny to be afraid of someone who doesn’t look like them. When adults are upset their kids are being bullied, this is the perfect example that teaching kindness and acceptance starts AT HOME. Just be kind to one another. We need it now more than ever!!” she said on one of her posts the day this video went viral on Tik-Tok.
This is not the first time that Lizzie has faced bullying for the way she looks. She has been at the receiving end of harsh comments and a lot of bullying both online and offline ever since she was 5. In fact, after growing up, when she realised she is anything but ‘ugly’ she became an activist for people who are bullied just for the way they look. She calls out people on Instagram who leave hate messages on her profile with kindness and a lot of empathy. Here is one such response:
“Dear @jasonmartineztv, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and say you didn’t mean to say this directly to me. Since October is national anti-bullying awareness month, let’s take this as a learning moment and remember even “joking” like this to a friend can always end up hurting someone else. Let’s do better next time. #daretobekind ** Shortly after posting this he did reach out to apologize which I will always accept and offer forgiveness.” she said.
The world needs kindness and empathy now more than ever and we need people like Lizzie to remind us that it takes nothing to be nice to someone. More power to you, girl!
Featured Image: Instagram
