MEET THE inspiring sports fanatic who was once called ‘Elephant Girl’ due to her swollen leg and admits to entering a beauty pageant just to ‘fit in’ – but she is now embracing her look and helping other women with body insecurities do the same.

Speaker and founder of Ninjas Fighting Lymphoedema Foundation, Amy Rivera (38), from Missouri, USA, was born with a condition called lymphoedema, a long-term chronic condition that causes swelling in the body’s tissues.

Growing up with this condition meant that the right side of her body was severely inflamed from her ears to her toes. Her appearance would attract cruel reactions and comments from her peers who would call her ‘elephant girl’, ‘elephant leg’ or ‘girl with the big leg’.


At the age of 18, Amy entered into a beauty pageant to prove that she can fight against her bullies and won the title of Miss Junior America (Missouri) along with her very own tiara.

Despite this victory, for a decade, Amy would hide her leg under skirts and dresses to avoid the stares and comments. Amy was told by her doctors in 2012, before her official diagnosis, that she would be in a wheelchair by the time she was 35 and would never be an athlete.

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