'I was born to do this': How ballet star Misty Copeland fought adversity — and won

TODAY - They told her she had the wrong body type for classical ballet: too short, too curvy. Her lines were all wrong. The color of her skin stood out too starkly from that of her fellow ballerinas.

TODAY — They told her she had the wrong body type for classical ballet: too short, too curvy. Her lines were all wrong. The color of her skin stood out too starkly from that of her fellow ballerinas.

Misty Copeland kept right on dancing — and proved the naysayers wrong.

The former ballet prodigy, now 31, has become the first African-American soloist at the American Ballet Theatre in 20 years and this week premiered in the lead dual role of Odette/Odile in the company’s Australian production of “Swan Lake.”

That’s just the latest development in a whirlwind year that saw Copeland become a New York Times best-selling author (her memoir, Life In Motion, was released in March), as well as an Internet sensation thanks to an empowering viral ad for Under Armour. And Copeland is nurturing the next generation of fans with her new children’s book Firebird, which tells the story of a young girl who battles self-doubt to reach amazing heights.

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