DARE TO BE KIND

When Lizzie Velasquez was 17 years old, she came across a video online titled "The World's Ugliest Woman"—only to discover that it featured her. In response, she decided she would stand up on behalf of victims everywhere and created a YouTube channel and TED talk that have drawn tens of millions of viewers. In this revelatory book, Lizzie reveals the hidden forces that give rise to cruelty, and how we can redirect them to unlock empathy and kindness.

Lizzie advocates that we:

--Fully embrace people’s differences as well as our own
--Throw on our “capes” and overcome the obstacles in our paths
--Believe in love and take on the world with the right mental attitude

While that would have been enough to knock down even the most resilient individual, Lizzie started utilizing the very medium that spawned this hatred to fight back and spread positivity and compassion instead. These qualities—her trademark humor, her down-to-earth attitude, and her raw vulnerability—have to date drawn 34 million unique viewers and half a million subscribers to Lizzie’s YouTube channel.

Written by one of cyber-bullying’s most prominent victims, DARE TO BE KIND is not simply a guide to overcoming bullying; it is the start of an important conversation about this pervasive cultural problem. As she shares her personal story, Velasquez provides the reader with the practical solutions that have worked for her over a lifetime of bullying while offering up insights on how we can transform society into a kinder, more accepting place. With advice on the subjects of confidence, kindness, and self-worth, this book will be an invaluable resource for parents of modern adolescents, Millennials still recovering from the after-effects of the earliest cyber-bullying, and anyone who wants to make a real, positive difference.

Brilliantly drawing on Lizzie’s own experiences, Dare to Be Kind presents the path to radical acceptance, love, and tolerance, and provides a framework to help you lead a confident, resilient life and, ultimately, build a more compassionate world for everyone.

Lizzie Velasquez is a motivational speaker with over a half a million subscribers on her YouTube channel and the Executive Producer of the documentary based on her life, A Brave Heart.