My entire life I've been seen for my body my height really whether for
better for worse, people would look at my height, usually look down on me because
that's physically the situation and already make an assumption about my capabilities
especially being a fencer and a girl, at a young age I would go up against
opponents who were my age but so much taller than me and they would laugh, but
I would beat them. And my coach always taught me that when you go to shake
their hand you do it with humility and respect and you never laugh back in
their face because that's what sport is really about, that's what life is really
about. It's about respecting others and I think that as a petite I've learned
respect from a completely different level because I know that my body is not
who I am. My personality is not what it is because of my height, it's not related
to my height in any way. My height is just my vessel that I come in and
I think the message for other petite women out there who are working on their
body and their body confidence is that you have to love the way you are today
because beauty and judgement is something that really changes over time.
Right now, strong is sexy and that's amazing and we're all enjoying that wave,
but it's not always going to be just like. Right now tall is also sexy, when I
was younger big butts were not sexy, and in middle
school I was made fun for my big butt and all of a sudden it's this huge deal now
and you have to find that inner love for
yourself, for your body, and for your height. That's really why I started Smalletics.
I really want to create a community of petites to find that
confidence space within themselves and find a way to bring it out of themselves
and into the world, because our height really is not what dictates our
abilities, our personalities, our qualities...
This is really a movement I'm starting with the #shortgirlgang to redefine petite
and start showing all petite women that you don't have to be tall to feel tall.
Height is a feeling and as a five-foot one petite girl myself,
I feel limitless.