Lizzy Howell, a 15-year-old ballerina from Delaware, is taking over the internet after she posted an Instagram video of herself dancing. The video, which shows Howell doing an impressive amount of fouettés, was filmed last year and posted more than a month ago, but it’s just now going viral. Check it out:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNF3Hfah8hy/
The video has since been shared on numerous social media platforms and received a ton of praise from viewers who admire diversity in dance. She also received more than 40,000 followers from the post going viral.
show 👏🏿 out👏🏿 and 👏🏿 have 👏🏿 these👏🏿girls👏🏿shook👏🏿 pic.twitter.com/yPJZPGCgPw
— nappy by nature 🌱 (@sailorfemme) January 15, 2017
Respect to her. she is moving. Strength and balance 👀💪🏿 pic.twitter.com/BDu9hz3RdH
— Quick Sessions (@QuickSessions) January 13, 2017
Howell has been dancing since she was in preschool, and says her hobby has helped her get through struggles with anxiety and pseudotumor cerebri, an excess of fluid around the brain. While she is “very happy that someone discovered” her, she isn’t a fan of her new followers calling her “plus-size.”
“If I can do everything that anyone else can, why should I be in a separate category?” she told Buzzfeed News. True that.
Thanks to her newfound internet fame, Howell has been taken on as an ambassador for a dancers-with-disabilities awareness campaign, where she will encourage others to persevere with the help of dance.
“I have been told numerous times by teachers that I will get no where in the dance world if I do not lose this weight,” she wrote in a separate post. “Over the years, I have learned not to care what people think! If people want to tear you down, let them and show them that you can do it!”
Clearly she’s already proven the haters wrong. “I will be going into my 8th production of the nutcracker, my 11th dance recital this year and, my 4th NYCDA convention. I haven’t given up and neither should you!”
Lizzy Howell, you are a star. Keep doing you!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPLTu90Bz9V/?taken-by=lizzy.dances
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPN_6ykBQCK/?taken-by=lizzy.dances
https://www.instagram.com/p/BO5iexuBmSs/?taken-by=lizzy.dances
https://www.instagram.com/p/BO0Svj-BkvD/?taken-by=lizzy.dances
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOkdwLUBdiK/?taken-by=lizzy.dances
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOcuZcCBj5x/?taken-by=lizzy.dances
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNstAaChT-H/?taken-by=lizzy.dances
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNXgWwxBjMo/?taken-by=lizzy.dances
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJUD7s3BUuX/?taken-by=lizzy.dances
https://www.instagram.com/p/BILpqnDBl7e/?taken-by=lizzy.dances
https://www.instagram.com/p/BGNtobro-AW/?taken-by=lizzy.dances
