Lizzie Velasquez has turned a damning video of herself titled "the world's ugliest woman" into a success story.
The 27-year-old from Austin, Texas was born visually impaired with a rare syndrome that has meant her weight has never been more than 27.5kg.
Velasquez was 17 when she stumbled across an eight-second YouTube clip of herself being interviewed on TV when she was a young child.
It was uploaded by an anonymous user, with more than four million views and prompted a stream of death threats and abuse.
"A huge part of my life was just being a huge question mark," she told AAP.
"Since I found that video I was determined to figure out a way to create my own definition of who I am."
She used the "shock and confusion" of the cyberbullying experience to fuel her passion to become a motivational speaker, anti-bullying activist and three-time author.
Her first film, A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story, was digitally released via online providers such as iTunes and Google Play in Australia on Friday.
The film documents Velasquez's life from birth to her 2013 TEDx talk for Austin Women, How Do You Define Yourself?, which rocketed her to public attention and has since amassed more than 10.6 million views.
"The fact that it was able to help other women in that room, and very shortly after other people around the world, was definitely shocking and incredible at the same time," she said.
A Brave Heart shows the moment Velasquez's genetic specialist identified her condition from blood work and gene sequencing after 25 years of mystery.
"We actually had our crew go in and film me the moment I was actually diagnosed," she said, citing neonatal progeroid syndrome - a combination of marfan and lipodystrophy - as the answer.
The Texan has twice visited Capitol Hill to push for the US to pass its first federal anti-bullying bill, the Safe Schools Improvement Act.
"It's a very simple bill that would give teachers a better way to handle instances of bullying in the classroom and it would also require every school to keep a record of the amount of bullying incidents," she said.
As for the YouTube user who uploaded the initial video, Velasquez said she would love to tell them she's forgiven them.
"There is always a light on the other side of bullying and there is always a way we can remedy the situation," she said.
