Last night on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars, we got to see something truly spectacular. No, not Alfonso Ribeiro finally doing “The Carlton”, although that was a close second. The dance that stole the show last night was Bethany Mota with professional Derek Hough. Her inspirational rumba about growing up with bullies left everyone wishing they had a box of Kleenex nearby.
Bethany Mota became a YouTube sensation practically overnight in 2009 with her charisma and her spot-on beauty recommendations for young girls. Today, she stays busy sharing her beauty and fashion expertise with over 7-million subscribers, launching her first clothing line with Aeropostale, and of course, wowing the judges week to week on this season of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars.
This week, the stars shared their most memorable year, and the inspiration behind the dances they were performing. Bethany opened up about her experience with bullying. Some girls who she thought were her friends turned out to be the people who broke her down.
“They just turned on me, for some reason,” Bethany said during the interview, “I felt like no one else knew what I was going through…I guess I’ll never be confident again, I guess I’ll never truly love myself.”
The rumba started with the standard list of words kids throw out when bullying—ugly, loser, fat, nerd. Dancing to Colbie Caillat‘s “Try”, Bethany broke out of her shell, and ended with “pushing” the negative words away and replaced them with the words, “I love who I am.” The judges were moved to tears. Julianne Hough told her,
“What you stand for is so beautiful and what you wish you could have told yourself years ago, you just told so many girls tonight. You are a role model, not only for young girls, but for women, for mothers, for everybody. I think to love yourself is so important. I love what you stand for.”
Bethany inspired so many people with her dance last night. Social media blew up after her dance, and #ILoveWhoIAmBecause became one of the trending topics on Twitter. She showed young girls how to rise above bullying, and love who you are no matter what others say. Julianne Hough summed it up perfectly; Bethany is a role model for everyone.