This is a petites-first space. This blog is written by a petite writer, and first and foremost for petite readers. The truth is, as shorter women, society often judges us to be somehow less than others. We get talked over, dismissed, and disregarded. Our voices aren’t as loud; our body language not as assertive. We’re assumed to be “cute”, “sweet” or “helpful”, not “strong”, “powerful” or “in charge”. We tend to moderate our voices, not speak up when we should, accommodate the demands of others, and not demand our share of space.

We are, quite literally, all too often overlooked.

When you add the effects of gender discrimination to the mix, it becomes quickly apparent that this is a particular problem for us short women. The conversations that happen around height discrimination tend to focus on short men and their problems. Which exist, to be sure. But so do problems faced by short women in society. And we’re taught that we can’t talk about them. When we do, there’s always someone else steamrolling the conversation or turning it into something else.

Well, not here. Not this time.

To my tall readers…

That’s not to say that you don’t face frustrating issues being tall. I’m not diminishing those. But society teaches tall people to be more assertive, to be more heard and to stand up (pun intended) for themselves. Petites are taught the opposite by society. That’s why, on the internet-at-large, every single thread or article or discussion about petite challenges gets a flurry of comments from tall people hijacking the thread and claiming that their issues are so much worse.

This isn’t a competition and I don’t want it to become one. You’re more than welcome to read and participate on this blog. But I’d ask that you be careful not to comment-hijack or make every post about you. There are plenty of other places on the Internet where you can discuss tall person’s issues.

I ask that you simply respect this space. Thank you for understanding.