The Plight of a Tall Woman

I get comments from time to time about my height. At this point in my life, most people see it as attractive or an asset, but that hasn't always been the case. 

I never considered myself as cute or attractive growing up...I was too nerdy and awkward. As I got taller, though, I realized that I was going to stick out whether I liked it or not. I could either embrace it and learn how to carry myself with grace, or I could continue to be awkward and just tack on a side of gangly. 

What inspired this post is that I ran across a Pinterest pin from "tall girl problems" on tumblr. Most of the posts on the site are humorous and make light of the idiosyncrasies that only tall girls would understand. It was fun. It was like I found an underground club of my people. (I just flashed back to Whitney Houston getting off of the plane in Israel yelling "my land! my people!" referring to herself as being Jewish). Sorry. ... What made me sad, though, were the posts from teenage girls that really disliked themselves because of their height. I wish I could e-mail each and every one of them to tell them how to embrace it. Maybe I will.

These are some topics that always have had, and always will have, an affect on my (and other tall girls) life. Never thought about them, did you?

Bath tubs:

Something is always out of the water...legs, knees, upper body. Something is always left out in the cold. In the house we're building, it comes with a "big" tub, but to be honest, I'm really not sure that it's big enough. 

Clothes:

This one is obvious. I can rarely, if ever, go into a normal store and buy a pair of pants off of the shelf. And of course extra long lengths ordered from the internet usually cost a bit more. And shirts never come with extra long sleeves. I have to buy men's pajama bottoms. Those long, elegant clothes the models wear...they never show up on a rack anywhere! Oh, and you can't fully dry much of anything

Transportation:

Every train, bus and coach seating on an airplane assumes everyone is 5' 5".

Heels:

I never thought it was odd for me to wear tall heels (I mean, I'm already taller than everyone else...what's 4 more inches?) until I was browsing through some shoes at a department store one day, and the clerk saw me picking up several shoes. He said, "oh, are you looking at the heel height because your self-conscious about being tall?". I said, "no, I was looking to see how over-priced your shoes are". 

Group pictures:

Always in the back...but always with the boys. I took the good with the bad ; )

5’ 2” friends:

Why are all of my friends below average height? I figured out in high school that I had poor posture because I was always slouching over to talk to my midget friends. 

"Do you play basketball/volleyball?":

The automatic question. Technically, yes, I played basketball in fifth grade...does that count? The thing is, you have to have coordination to play sports and that was a skill I was just not blessed with. I joked that I was going to get a t-shirt made that said "No, I don't play basketball. Yes, this is my natural eye color."

Growing pains:

I always thought my legs hurt at night because of riding horses so much...turns out they were actually growing pains. I still get them from time to time.

Umbrella holding:

The chosen one for umbrella holding. Plus side, I stay completely dry when everyone else has some part get damp.

Obvious/obnoxious comments:

People just say things they shouldn't. I know they mean it in jest, but seriously. I can brush a lot of things off of my shoulder, but there are a lot of girls that can't.

Having to limbo to rinse my hair in shower:

Most shower heads hit me smack in the middle of the back of my head, so I have to do this limbo move to wet my hair. This was most evident at the old dorms at OSU where the shower heads were set for women in the 60's who didn't wash their hair every day...they hit me between my shoulder blades. My quads got pretty strong that year. 

Office chairs:

None of them fit me. Ever. I've deduced that they're all made for short, overweight men. 

Reaching:

I can reach the untouched produce at the back/top of the bins at the grocery store. I don't have to ask for help to reach things at all, unless I'm wearing a short skirt ; )

Exercising:

I can't lift the same amount of weight as a shorter female. Think about it...the arc of my bicep curl is much larger than a shorter woman's, so it takes more effort on my part to lift the same weight. Squats...my butt has a lot further distance to reach the same target (like a bench or weight ball) than that of someone shorter. Bogus, I tell you!

Asian countries:

I got asked to take pictures with people a lot in China...especially at the World's Fair. I think a lot of the fair go-ers were people from rural areas that had never seen a tall, white girl with blue eyes. I'd like to hear (the translated version) of them going through their vacation photos with friends and family members. I think it would go something like, "oh, this mutant American girl"

Men:

Why do really tall men always end up with tiny women?? Seriously, things are tough as it is and you petites take the only thing that can make us feel small and feminine?! My husband is taller than me flat footed, but I still didn't get to wear the shoes I wanted to for my wedding because I would have been significantly taller. 

So, the next time you see a tall teenage girl that you can tell feels a little un-pretty or doesn't quite fit into her group of friends...pay her a complement, tell her to hold her back up straight and smile. Tall is pretty too.