If you’ve ever typed the words ugliest human being in the world into a search engine, you were probably looking for a shock. Maybe a laugh. Or perhaps just a bit of morbid curiosity. But what you actually find isn't a punchline. It’s usually a picture of a woman named Lizzie Velasquez or Mary Ann Bevan.
It’s heavy stuff.
Honestly, the internet is a weird, sometimes cruel place. For years, the algorithms have spat out these names like they’re facts. But behind those pixels are real people with stories that would make most of us feel pretty small. It's not about "ugly" in the way we think of a bad haircut or a crooked nose. We’re talking about rare medical conditions, survival, and a level of grit that’s actually kind of beautiful.
The Tragic Case of Mary Ann Bevan
Let’s go back to the early 1900s. Mary Ann Bevan didn't start out as a "sideshow freak." She was a nurse in London. She was a mother of four. She was, by all accounts, a perfectly ordinary, even attractive woman.
Then things got dark.
Mary developed acromegaly. It’s a hormonal disorder where your pituitary gland goes haywire and starts pumping out way too much growth hormone. Your hands grow. Your feet swell. Your jaw begins to protrude until your face is almost unrecognizable.
Her husband died in 1914. Suddenly, she was a widow with four mouths to feed and a face that people were starting to point at.
Why she took the title
She didn't have a choice. Not really.
Employment options for a woman with a "disfigured" face in 1920s England were basically zero. So, she did something incredibly brave—or desperate. She entered a competition. The prize? The title of ugliest woman in the world.
She won.
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She used that title to get a job at the Dreamland circus on Coney Island. She let people gawk at her for money. She took the insults and the stares so she could send her kids to school. She earned about $50,000 in her career—nearly a million dollars today. People called her the ugliest human being in the world, but her kids called her mom. That’s a trade-off most of us wouldn’t have the stomach for.
Lizzie Velasquez and the Viral Video
Fast forward to the 2000s. A 17-year-old girl named Lizzie Velasquez is sitting at her computer. She’s looking for music on YouTube. Instead, she finds an 8-second video.
The title? "The World's Ugliest Woman."
It was her.
The video had over 4 million views. The comments were even worse. People were telling her to "do the world a favor" and put a gun to her head.
Lizzie was born with a condition called Neonatal Progeroid Syndrome. It’s incredibly rare—only a handful of people in the entire world have it. It prevents her from gaining body fat, no matter how much she eats. She’s blind in one eye and has a weakened immune system.
Turning the tide
Most people would have deleted their accounts and disappeared. Lizzie did the opposite.
She became a motivational speaker. She did a TED Talk that went viral for all the right reasons. She basically looked the internet in the eye and said, "You don't get to define me."
When you search for the ugliest human being in the world today, her name still pops up because of that old, hateful video. But now, it’s surrounded by articles about her activism. She’s used the very label meant to destroy her to build a platform against bullying.
Why the Search Results are So Messed Up
You might wonder why Google keeps showing these women when you search for something so negative. It’s kind of a technical glitch in our collective empathy.
- Search Intent: People search for the "ugliest person."
- Historical Tags: Historical articles about Mary Ann Bevan use that specific keyword.
- Viral Momentum: The bullying of Lizzie Velasquez created so many links with that keyword that the algorithm "learned" she was the answer.
It’s a feedback loop. The more we gawk, the more the search engine thinks this is what we want to see. It doesn't know the difference between a factual "ugliest person" and a person who was called that.
The Medical Reality
Almost every person ever labeled this way was actually suffering from a severe medical condition.
- Hypertrichosis: Often called "Werewolf Syndrome," which affected people like Julia Pastrana.
- Treacher Collins Syndrome: A condition affecting the development of bones and tissues in the face.
- Acromegaly: The condition Mary Ann Bevan had.
Basically, "ugly" is just a lazy word for "medically rare."
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Redefining the Gaze
We’ve got to stop looking at these stories as "freak show" fodder.
The real takeaway here isn't about physical appearance at all. It’s about the sheer weight of the human spirit. Mary Ann Bevan endured the humiliation of the circus to save her family. Lizzie Velasquez faced the entire internet’s cruelty and decided to be kind anyway.
If we're being honest, the "ugliest" thing in these stories isn't the faces of the people involved. It’s the behavior of the people looking at them.
What you can do next
Instead of just clicking away, take a second to actually look into the Safe Schools Improvement Act or other anti-bullying initiatives. If you see someone being harassed online for their appearance, don't just stay silent. Report the content. The only reason the ugliest human being in the world remains a popular search term is because we keep feeding the monster.
Check out the work of the Changing Faces charity or the Face Equality International movement. They’re working to make sure that people with facial disfigurements aren't defined by a label.
Stop searching for the "ugliest." Start looking for the story behind the face. You'll find that the people we're told to pity are usually the ones we should be admiring.