the long and SHORT of it

I am short. Very short.  5"1'  short to be exact. And while it has taken me years to accept my height (or lack thereof) I believe that I have finally come to terms with my tiny stature. Sort of. You see, I wear heels. High heels. Daily. Mostly to work and ALWAYS when I'm going out on the town. So I usually appear 5"4' at my tallest. I realize that looking like I am 5"4' is not a great feet (yeah I spelled it wrong) in itself but being able to see over a cubicle or spot a friend in the crowd does make me feel more normal and less hobbit like. And I like to think that my fellow height challenged friends feel the same way. It's not that we don't like our shortness, in fact I think we all secretly LOVE IT, it's just that we simply can't see or be seen when we need to be both literally and figuratively. And that's really where we fall short. 

So you can imagine my surprise as I set myself up in front of the television a few nights ago anxiously awaiting the 2-hour premier of America's Next Top Model when I realized this was the first ever petite casting of the show! That's right, petite. Gasp! Looks like the tiny's of the world are moving up. I had heard of the shows venture into smallville months prior to the other night but it had completely slipped my mind until I sat down to indulge in the glam that is modeling. As I watched I couldn't help but giggle remembering a friend of mine who tried to persuade me to audition for the petite ANTM a few months back. As I'm pretty sure my fellow short friend was joking about auditioning, I'm also fairly certain she really wanted me to represent the short-ays of the world! And I would have been happy too if I really felt that my height wouldn't affect the outcome (amongst other things). But even as we giggled about the possibility, I still felt short. Too short even for Tyra and her crazy "petite" antics. I soon discovered I was right.

5'3" that's the height of the shortest girl that made it onto this season's ANTM. Ok, that's short, tiny even in terms of super model standards but there is only ONE girl at that height that made the cut. ONE with the rest being significantly taller. The majority of the girls picked to be on Tyra's short list range from 5'5" to 5'7", 5'7" being the cut off height for the season. I don't know about you but 5'7" is tall. And, yes, I know SUPERmodels typically are tall, like 5'10" and up tall. But 5'7"? Can we really classify 5'7" as petite even if the average model is 5'10"? Maybe. But being 5'7" won't get you kicked out of a modeling audition. 5'3" might though... 

And that's just my point. At 5'7" you've got a shot, even without Tyra's "help" but at 5'3" you need a shoe in. So why didn't Tyra make it her mission to have more girls under the still very tall 5'7"? It suddenly became all to apparent that ANTM didn't really stand behind the idea of shorter models. After watching an awkward and somewhat amusing display of young woman desperately trying to impress the judges, the time came for the dreaded eliminations. As 5 or so girls sobbed as their dreams of walking the cat walk disappeared, Tyra oh so eloquently offered up a word of encouragement. It went something like this, "You probably won't get runway jobs (cause of their height) but you can do other things like acting and face modeling." Whaaaaaat? That stings, Tyra. Stings bad! So if the host and creator of the show isn't quite sure where a girl under 5'10" fits in in the modeling  industry what's the point of the show?

Don't misunderstand me. I get it. It's about helping the little people (even if they're not so little) make it in an industry that scoffs at the idea of being short. And I respect it. I actually think it's cool. Tyra's no genius like she may like to think she is, but it's still a cool idea. BUT if you're going to flaunt that you're the only one that is willing to give a short girl a chance then give a short girl a chance. And try to believe in what you are selling. It might help your cause.