11 Things about life only a short girl will understand

11 Reasons why being short is awesome

Some of you may be wondering how life’s like being a short girl. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try to grow by playing basketball, skipping, jumping, refraining from carrying heavy things and all that. You. Just. Can’t. Grow.

We can’t win the battle against genetics. And that’s coming from a genetically predisposed short – I mean petite- girl. But after more than a decade of being so, I’ve learnt to live with being smaller (there are the pros of it!).

So here’s a round up of being a short girl that no one told you about.

1. Hearing your partner’s heartbeat

Being petite means there’s a high chance your boyfriend would be (much) taller than you. Which means locking in a tight embrace puts your head nicely at his chest. The most amazing and relaxing thud you can have reverberating through your ear.

2. Hiding behind people / things

Throughout more than a decade of being small-sized, I’ve learnt how to use it to my advantage. The number of times I’ve used it to avoid particular people are countless. It’s like you’re able to simply *shrinkshrinkshrink* and POOF you’re gone.

Or how you can stand behind any other taller person (which is practically everybody for me) and there you have it! A mobile shade from the scorching sun.

3. “The short short one ah?”

You don’t (actually) need a name. You know those situations when you want to refer to someone but don’t know their names and you label that person by their predominant feature?

Keyword : predominant.

4. Darting through crowds

What better way to get to the front of your idol’s concert in record time than to squirm and squeeze under people’s armpits all the way to the head of the crowd?

5. Having a third of your age shaved off instantly

You know I like to play this game with people who ask me how old I am. Yepps, the Guessing Game. I know it’s lame but over the years, I’ve learnt how old I actually look from people’s first guesses. When I was in secondary school, people thought I was in primary school, when I was in Junior College, people thought I was in Secondary school.

Well, but it will be nice to look like I’m in my early 30s when I’m in my 40s though.

6. Tops as dresses, Midis as Maxis, ¾ pants as Long pants.

Oh and so many more. Like going in to the store and getting clothing in the smallest size. One size bigger- shit it’s too long. One size smaller? “Sorry, this is our smallest size.” Also I happened to just try on a maxi skirt. Pulled it up to become a tube dress, and guess what?

It was still a maxi.

Well, it’s still easier to shorten than to lengthen a garment eh?

7. Being teased for being short.

I’m actually really fine with all the short jokes thrown at me. As long as it isn’t meant to be plain rude and insulting. But if you’re really annoyed at some people who deliberately mean to insult, try these comeback lines:

‘I can see your nose hair from down here!’

‘Sorry, didn’t hear you from way up there!’

‘Good things come in small packages!’

‘Well, it makes it easier to hide from morons.’

Or my favourite:

‘wow.’ (with all the sarcasm you can muster)

But the best would still be to tell them straight up front you don’t like what they’re saying to you.

8. Wearing heels

To me being short – being able to wear heels shamelessly. You don’t have to worry about being too tall or being taller than your other half and just go ahead and don all those sexy heels. Pass those JC’s here please.

9. Sleeping on sofas

Now don’t give me those ‘sofas aren’t meant to be slept on’ jest. Let’s not put their comfiness to waste eh. What better if you fit purr-fect-ly into the length of sofas without having to curl up awkwardly or propping your feet onto the armrest.

10. The ability and agility to crawl around

Short people get the extra training of climbing shelves and tables to get things off higher places. Unless I grow taller (which will likely never happen), I’ll have to continue climbing onto my kitchen table to get jars from the upper cabinets and stepping onto shelves to reach up.

11. All eyes on you when it’s height-taking time

Remember when you’re in school and all students have to take their heights for the records? Well, I never fail to attract attention when it’s height-taking time. My friends be like –

while I pathetically try to stretch every inch and fibre in my body in a bid to get a larger reading.

Forget about trying to get a larger reading, you wouldn’t be walking around with an awkwardly straight back and a frozen face anyway. 

To all the short girls out there!

Though there are days where I wished I was less vertically challenged, I’ve learnt to accept myself as it is. Nobody’s perfect, everybody has their own insecurities. The crux is to learn to werkk them and use them to your advantage.

Most importantly, be happy with and about yourself! Your confidence will certainly shine through. 

Love, 
Averlynn

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