A woman in a meme mocking her appearance has received thousands of messages of support after calling for people to stop sharing the pictures.

Lizzie Velasquez is a motivational speaker who has given TED talks and has thousands of followers.

She was born with a rare, inherited condition which means her body is unable to store fat.

"I'm writing this post not as someone who is a victim but as someone who is using their voice," she wrote.

"No matter what we look like or what size we are, at the end of the day we are all human."

As well as Lizzie, other memes feature plus-size women, older people and those with a disfigurement.

A number of Facebook pages appear to be responsible for creating and sharing the images, which require people to tag a friend with the name referred to in the meme.

"I ask that you keep that in mind the next time you see a viral meme of a random stranger," she said.

"At the time you might find it hilarious but the human in the photo is probably feeling the exact opposite."

As well as being unable to store fat in her body Lizzie suffers form another serious health condition too.

Called Marfan syndrome, it can affect the length of a person's limbs and their body shape.

"It's very late at night as I type this but I do so as a reminder that the innocent people that are being put in these memes are probably up just as late scrolling through Facebook and feeling something that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy," she wrote in her social media post.

Her post about the meme has since been shared thousands of times on Facebook and Instagram, with many comments praising her words.

It also appears one of the groups responsible for promoting these kinds of images has been shut down by Facebook, after users made multiple complaints about it.

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