Hello, up there!

How's the weather more than five and a half feet above the ground? I will never know. I bet you do not even realize how lucky you are to be able to comfortably see over your steering wheel or to be able to reach the top shelf at the grocery store without climbing up the lower shelves. For us girls who are "vertically challenged," the idea of not having to sit on a phone book or uncomfortably giraffe stretch our necks to safely operate a moving vehicle is foreign. I know it sounds crazy. Most cars are big. We are not.

The top shelf of the grocery store may be where you find all of your favorite snacks. Most of us don't even know what the top shelf looks like, let alone what yummy snacks it may hold. The top shelf is probably about a foot above our heads, out of our natural sight range, and definitely out of reach. Luckily, some clever (and probably short) person, like me, created the potentially dangerous art of shelf climbing many years ago. While it is dangerous, not only to the person doing it but to the Goldfish that may be squished in the process, climbing on top of the bottom shelf in order to reach an almost unattainable grocery item is possible. However, if one of us short girls politely ask one of you not so short people in the grocery store to grab something for us, please oblige. It is safer for everyone.

While I am sure that the tall girl life has its own set of problems, the list of problems pertaining only to short girls (is the only thing that) goes on and on. If we're lucky, "short" length pants fit us. Sometimes if that doesn't work, normal people capris will fit as us pants. Gasp. Most of us probably have a go to alterations lady who has been hacking off the bottoms of pants and dresses for us since everyone else kept growing and we didn't. For us, finding pants or a dress that can be bought at the right length is better than finding a pot of gold. If you can walk into your favorite store and grab a pair of jeans that fits, count your blessings.

I would say that most people who aren't challenged by their height would consider being called "cute" a compliment. However, when you are called "cute" on a regular basis, only due to your height being equivalent to your appearance as a "cute" child - it gets old. Yes, being complimented is always nice, but please give me a normal 20-year-old compliment, not the same one you would give to my 8-year-old sister.

Just like most of the other problems faced in life, it would help everyone out if we all tried to be more empathetic, to try to picture ourselves in someone else's shoes. And while picturing yourself in extra small, maybe even kids' sized shoes, may be hard, consider it the next time you see a five foot nothing girl struggling to grab the laundry detergent off the top shelf at the grocery store or looking at pants in the mall with dispair. It can be a struggle down here. We dream of the life some of you lucky people may live at normal or taller than normal heights.

Best,

The short girls who can't reach anything

P.S. Please don't use as arm rests. We don't use you as coat racks or jungle gyms.