I’ve been short my entire life. At a whopping five feet (five-feet-two-inches on a good day with the right pair of shoes), I am the second tallest in my family behind my father. I have faced many obstacles in my life like not being able to reach the top shelf or being used as an armrest, but being short is not half bad — pun intended. I have heard all of the very unoriginal jokes, such as, “I’m surprised Willy Wonka lets you take breaks.” Let’s not forget my favorite one though, “How’s the weather down there?” But, I love being short. There are definitely some perks to being a short girl, in fact, there's quite a few. Here are 20 of my favorites.
1. We can wear heels of any height because we will still be shorter than our date.
2. No one complains when you stand in front of them at a concert.
3. Limbo: that’s our game. Every time.
4. We get more steps in a day because of our little strides.
5. We save money by shopping in the kid’s section. Being a size four shoe has its perks, people.
6. Twin bed? Not a problem.
7. “Do you have enough leg room?” Always.
8. Dresses are never too short, but maxis are another story.
9. We are always the piggy-backee and not the piggy-backer.
10. Always in the front row for photos.
11. We are the perfect height for hugs and forehead kisses.
12. If a robber were to break in, we could crawl through the dog door.
13. We don’t have to duck for tree branches.
14. In the long run, we will always look younger than we actually are.
15. Shower heads will never hang too low.
16. Let's get real, most guys prefer short girls.
17. Kids like us more because they think we are one of them.
18. We are way closer to the ground when we fall.
19. Shaving our legs takes less time since there is less square footage.
20. We can always justify dancing on raised surfaces.
I would be lying if I said there weren’t challenges for being a short girl. My mom always tried to comfort me with, “Short girls want to be tall and tall girls want to be short.” Thanks for trying to comfort me mom. I may not have always wanted to be short, but now I wouldn’t change it for the world. Being short is my thing — almost. Tall or short, embrace your height because like it or not, we are stuck this way. Helpful hint for all of the short girls out there: befriend as many tall people as possible, they come in handy from time to time, like when you need to reach something off the top shelf.