Kayte Lauren Christensen (born November 16, 1980 in Lakeview, Oregon) is an American color commentator and former professional basketball player who has competed internationally and for the Phoenix Mercury, Houston Comets and Chicago Sky in the WNBA.

Christensen has served as a color commentator for ESPNU and was alongside play-by-play announcer Doug Sherman on the call of the 2011 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Championship game.

Kayte Lauren Christensen was born in Lakeview, Oregon to Randy and Cathy Christensen. She grew up on her family's ranch in the Modoc County ranching community of Likely, California, with two sisters and a younger brother.

Source: Wikipedia

Kayte herself writes: "From a 700 acre cattle ranch in the Northeastern corner of California to the Big Apple!! I've lived and worked all over the world and I have landed back in the Valley of the Sun in a dream job working for the Phoenix Suns. Follow me on my new adventure in my personal and professional life. Get a closer glimpse than ever at who I really am through my own words and experiences!! Who knows what I will do or say next!"

Visit her website

My 6'2 1/2" friend Kim Glass (who is also listed in the Famous Tall Ladies section) has just created a new website which includes a blog. Kim won an Olympic silver medal with the US ladies volleyball team in Beijing and is a great role model.

This was taken off her website because she can tell you about herself better than I ever could:

At the age of 17, Kim was the number 2 recruit in the country, and was named the 2001 Pennsylvania State Gatorade Player of the year. Kim attended the University of Arizona, where she became the 2002 National Freshman of the year, and became the first Wildcat to record 2,000 kills. She still holds the records for aces and kills, as well as many other records in categories amongst the now, Pac-12, (formerly the pac-10). In 2010, she was inducted into the University of Arizona Hall of Fame. In 2015 Kim was inducted into the Pac-12 All Century Team.

After leaving college, Kim played professionally for nine years, & lived in eight different countries, including Italy, Puerto Rico, Turkey, Russia, Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, China, & Brasil. Amidst her professional career, she competed in the 2008 Beijing Games as the youngest player on the team, and became a U.S. women’s Indoor Volleyball Olympic Silver Medalist.

Combating disc herniations and a desire to move on, she retired from volleyball in 2014. Intrigued with the body and her love for health & wellness, in addition to wanting to learn and educate people on how to prevent injuries, she made the transition into the fitness industry in 2015. Jump starting her personal training career w/ her Nasm certification at Equinox and being the “female in-house” trainer at Easton Gym Co. in Manhattan Beach, she relocated to Unbreakable Performance Center where she’s coached a wide range of clients from professional athletes to Hollywood elite. She often went on the road with her clients to ensure their fitness needs were being handled and to keep consistency in training.

In 2011, Kim was featured in the famed Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, as well as ESPN’s The Body Issue. She continues to work as a model within the fitness and fashion world.

In 2016, she joined the cast of MTV’s The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars, to help raise funds for Covenant House, a non-profit homeless youth shelter, in Los Angeles.

Kim is a trainer, model, television personality, motivational speaker, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. She strives to improve the lives of everyone she meets through her knowledge, experience, and her highly energetic approach to training and coaching.

Visit Kim's website, her Instagram page and read this excellent FHM piece

Klub langer Menschen Deutschland

Der KLM ist ein in München eingetragener Verein mit Bezirksgruppen in 22 Städten Deutschlands, der sich gemäß den Vorgaben seiner Satzung für die "großen" Belange der langen Menschen einsetzt.

Mitglied im KLM können Menschen mit einer über dem Bevölkerungsdurchschnitt liegenden Körpergröße (Frauen mindestens 1,80m, Männer mindestens 1,90m) werden. Dabei besteht keine Altersbegrenzung. Der KLM bietet für Lange die Möglichkeit, sich bei angebotenen Veranstaltungen der unterschiedlichsten Art mit anderen grossgewachsenen Menschen zusammenzutreffen, deren einziges gemeinsames Merkmal die überdurchschnittliche Körpergröße der Mitglieder ist. Somit finden sich beim KLM Menschen aus allen Bevölkerungsschichten und Bildungsgraden.

Der KLM ist ein in München eingetragener Verein mit Bezirksgruppen in 22 Städten Deutschlands, der sich gemäß den Vorgaben seiner Satzung für die "großen" Belange der langen Menschen einsetzt.

Mitglied im KLM können Menschen mit einer über dem Bevölkerungsdurchschnitt liegenden Körpergröße (Frauen mindestens 1,80m, Männer mindestens 1,90m) werden. Dabei besteht keine Altersbegrenzung. Der KLM bietet für Lange die Möglichkeit, sich bei angebotenen Veranstaltungen der unterschiedlichsten Art mit anderen grossgewachsenen Menschen zusammenzutreffen, deren einziges gemeinsames Merkmal die überdurchschnittliche Körpergröße der Mitglieder ist. Somit finden sich beim KLM Menschen aus allen Bevölkerungsschichten und Bildungsgraden.

Website

Wir haben ein einziges gemeinsames Merkmal das uns zusammenführt: unsere Körperlänge. Die unterschiedlichsten Interessen und individuellen Fähigkeiten unserer Mitglieder jedoch, tragen zu einer gelungen, gemischten Gemeinschaft bei, in der wir uns gerne und regelmässig auf Augenhöhe treffen. Wir sind ein fröhliches Volk, es sind alle Interessierten Langen eingeladen an unseren Anlässen teilzunehmen, auch wenn sie noch nicht Mitglied sind.

Der Klub Langer Menschen (KLM) Schweiz ist eine Vereinigung von Menschen mit einer überdurchschnittlichen Körpergrösse und engagiert sich in der Schweiz für die Interessen aller langer Menschen jeden Alters. Der KLM CH ist die Dachorganisation der drei Sektionen in Basel, Bern, und Zürich.

In 15 europäischen Ländern gibt es ähnliche Klubs, welche sich in der European Union of Tall People (EUTP) organsieren. In der EUTP sind wir darum bemüht, uns bei Behörden und Herstellern Gehör für unsere Anliegen zu verschaffen und haben Zugang zur euopäischen Standardisierungskommission. Die gleichgesinnten Klubs in Nordamerika stehen mit dem Tall Club International (TCI) im Verband.

Die Mitglieder jedes Klubs sind in allen anderen Klubs weltweit jederzeit willkommene Gäste.

Website

Devious new weapon in the legroom war prevents the air passenger in front from reclining their seat

The Knee Defender safeguards precious legroom by preventing the seat in front of you from reclining any further. Consisting of two plastic clips which are placed at the top of either arm of the tray table, the miniature device keeps the seat in front of you locked in place.

The pocket-size gadget can also be adjustable according to how much you want to allow the seat in front of you to recline. The closer each clip is placed to the back of the seat, the less the seat will be able to move. The tiny device is about the same size as a house key and is made with "specially shaped grooves" to fit the different seats and tray table found on a variety of planes.

It is the work of Ira Goldman, a 6ft 4in Washington DC resident, who wanted to help other tall travellers fed up with being "bashed in the knees over and over again" while on a flight. It should be noted that the clips are meant to be used with your tray table down; airline typically request that the table must be raised and locked away during taxiing, takeoffs or landings.

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I can give some obvious drawbacks. For instance, flights where you aren't in an exit or bulkhead row are insane, and not just for you, but for the person in front of you. The last time I wasn't able to get a good seat the guy in front ended up switching with me. Sure, he was a nice guy, but quite literally the force of my knees on his seat was tilting him, and any time I adjusted (because I was in pain, for crying out loud) it meant a severe jostling.

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Life as a tall woman: Someone shouted at us on Grafton Street – ‘Yer girlfriend’s bigger than ye’

In my 20s I was often approached by men who were challenged by my height

Mon, Jan 28, 2019, 11:58

Helen Duignan

New research from the Netherlands reports that women who are taller than 5ft 9in are more likely to live into their 90s than women who are shorter than 5ft 3in.

In The Tall Book: A Celebration of Life from on High, Arianne Cohen claims that tall women are perceived to be more dominant, more confident and more intelligent. Tall women also tend to earn more money than their shorter counterparts, she writes.

I wish I'd known all this when I was a tall child growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. Height was part of my identity and part of family lore when I was young.

My ancestors were tall, my brothers were tall, my cousins were tall. Everyone was tall. My great-grandfather used to say "my great stature manifests itself sporadically in my descendants."

He was 6ft 7in. I was terrified I would take after him.

Being tall never failed to raise comment everywhere I went. Like a lot of tall children, I felt more was expected of me. I got away with less than my friends. How often did I hear "And you? You should know better." I was always either the leader (good) or the ring leader (bad) of my three best friends.

As a gangly seven-year-old I burned with embarrassment when my ballet teacher shouted "au pointe you clumsy elephant!"

I went to sleep dreaming I was as small as a Fisher Price person with an invisible suit.

From junior school into senior, I embarked on another involuntary growth spurt while my trio of tiny friends stayed tiny. They were all the same. I was different.

They followed me around as if I was their leader. They seemed to have stopped growing while I couldn't stop. I was all legs and arms and my hands seemed huge and stuck out of everything. The teeny trio were still playing hopscotch and skipping while I was getting taller than the teachers and tripping over the rope.

Stricken with self-consciousness, my shoulders fought a daily downward battle against an ever extending spine. I slouched myself smaller. I slouched to school and I slouched into classrooms and I slouched around hockey pitches and netball courts and I slouched back home again.

Well-meaning relatives made me walk across rooms with books on my head – promising that good posture would be rewarded with a career as an air hostess with Aer Lingus!

I walked tall for a while and in private hurled the books against the wall and re-arranged my shoulders.

Old men said "You're lovely when you smile. SMILE!" Older men put their arms around my waist and said "aren't you a fine strapping girl?" A man at a céilí said "There's some breedin' in them hips." I was about 13.

As I grew, my back started to hurt so a sheet of chipboard was found for my bed. A gruelling regime of swimming began. I was given too-short Speedos and told to get on with it.

My tall brothers sat at home on dark winter nights watching Top of the Pops while I slouched through the rain to the pool and slouched through the rain back home again. I was missing MASH. Tall was getting personal.

Despite the lack of sleep (turns out the chipboard should have been under the mattress) and the shame of the skin-tight Speedos, I made it through the awkward years and emerged as a relatively upright six-footer on the other side.

The well-meaning family friends upgraded my prospects from air-hostess to model. A promotion! I grimaced in response – flattered but also insulted. "She'll have to change her attitude," they said.

I went from an all-girls school to a (nearly) all-boys school. The teeny trio were left behind, and I fell in with a new trinity of very tall boys. We fancied ourselves and walked around town and hung out at the Bailey and pretended we were in a band. At 6ft 1in, I was the smallest. I began to un-slouch.

In my 20s I was often approached by men who were challenged by my height. Sometimes that meant they had something to prove. Other times they wanted to know who the hell I thought I was – taking up so much space in the world and acting as if I counted.

But with age and experience came a fragile confidence and eventually the ability to give as good as I got. But as the years passed, the family friends and relatives fretted on the side-lines when there was no husband in the offing.

They'd heard that the most recent boyfriend had dumped me after someone shouted after us on Grafton Street – "Yer girlfriend's bigger than ye!"

"She'll have to go abroad to find a husband!" cried the friends. Their tall sons were offered for dates. I declined. Their lips turned into tight lines. "She'll have to change her attitude," they said.

And as I edged into my late 20s, my modelling prospects were downgraded: "Have you thought about becoming a guard?"

My daughter is tall and getting taller (my great grandfather's stature manifesting itself sporadically in his descendants), and I'll probably have to witness the shoulder-slouch phase with her very soon.

My heart will go out to her but then I'll remind myself I was lucky then and I'm lucky now, and then I will remind her that she is lucky too.

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Lindsay Kay Hayward had one specific person in mind during her ambulance ride to the hospital after a health scare... fellow giant Shaquille O'Neal!

We got the "My Giant Life" star and 6'9" pro wrestler Friday in Vegas after she was hospitalized last week -- for what she thought was a blood clot in her lung -- and she's got a funny way of remembering her time on the stretcher.

Good to see Shaq helped Lindsay stay positive in what could have been a serious problem. Big folks gotta stick together... in sickness and in health.

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Liz Mikel

Liz has been performing since an early age. A Texas native, she has had the opportunity to grace stages locally, nationally, and abroad. Her love of dance, music and theater has endeared Ms. Mikel to audience members of all ages.

An all-around entertainer, she was trained from age 6 in dance by Ann Williams, founder of The Dallas Black Dance Theater. And she also studied under the illustrious Curtis King, founder and Director of The Black Academy of Arts and Letters.

She has toured nationally and has performed at Regional theaters across the country, including most recently, The Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Mass.

Liz is known to Dallas Metroplex audiences having performed at;The Dallas Theater Center, Theatre Three, The Dallas Children's Theater, WaterTower Theater, Casa Manana, The Majestic Theater, Jubilee Theater as well as other venues.

In October 2005, Liz played the part of Mabel –The First Lady, thrilling audiences in the musical "CROWNS" written and directed by award winning actress, Regina Taylor, at The Dallas Theater Center.

She has appeared in over 20 productions at DTC since 1990. And in December, she completed her 14th year in its annual production of A Christmas Carol, where she portrayed several characters, including The Ghost of Christmas Present.

She was a company member of Vivid Theater Ensemble, a professional African American acting company founded by her mentor, Akin Babatunde'. And in 2004, she accompanied Mr. Babatunde' and Co-playwright and producer, Alan Govenar to Geneva, Switzerland; Paris, France and New York to perform the musical Blind Lemon Blues.

As well as stage, Liz has appeared in films and commercials and she has done numerous voice-overs. She's also performed locally on Good Morning Texas, Insights, Metro, and Good Day Dallas.

Liz has opened for nationally renowned recording artists Erykah Badu, Branford Marsalis and Isaac Hayes. And was featured vocalist for the Dallas Museum of Art's presentation of Duke Ellington's "Sacred Concert".

She has received the Dallas Theatre League's Leon Rabin Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Musical 1998; The Sankofa Award, for her dedication to the Arts in the Community;The Dallas Theater Critics Forum Award 2004 for Ain't Misbehavin. Liz was named Best Actress 2004 by D Magazine in their annual Best of Big D issue. And recently, she was featured as Queen of the Arts-The Face of Black Theater in Dallas byThe Dallas Weekly, March, 2006.

Ms. Liz's dream of being a performer would not have been possible without the love and support of her family. Mother, Dr. Versia Lindsay Lacy; daughters, Lindsay, Corienne, and Vershea; and siblings, Brenda McKinney & Keith Lacy. "Thanks for your constant love, support and encouragement...I Love you all!"

Visit her website

LORNA SHERIDAN
INDEX-TRIBUNE MANAGING EDITOR
September 30, 2019, 6:26PMUpdated 7 hours ago

Sonoma Valley Rotarian Greg Brennan’s daughter, Jenna, has launched a lifestyle and clothing blog for tall girls and women. She’s nearly 6 feet 4 inches, herself.

"My family and my wife’s are tall, so we knew Jenna would be, too," said Greg Brennan. "Height was normal as Jenna grew up." Her brothers (6-foot-5 each) and cousins (nearing 6-feet-10 in one case) are tall, as are uncles and aunts – and even grandparents.

"Tall is beautiful’ was a mantra around our house as the kids grew," said Greg.

Not surprisingly, Jenna was a natural at sports. She wound up at U.C. Berkeley (’15) on a soccer scholarship and walked onto the track team to throw the discus.

Today, she works as a digital marketing manager at one of the world’s largest clothing retailers. But her passion project on the side is a blog called "Tall Girl Takeover."

Recently, a woman reached out to Jenna via the blog. The woman has two tall daughters who are really struggling, and she asked Jenna for her advice to get through such a tough phase of life.

Last week, Jenna posted a letter to her 16-year-old self (and all the tall young girls who are struggling to love their height) because she thought it would be helpful to many other tall girls. It’s her advice about growing up six inches taller than other girls. "Life is short. I’m not," says Jenna on her blog. "So let’s have some fun while I navigate life being a foot taller than the average woman."

Follow her blog at www.tgtakeover.com or @TallGirlTakeover_Jenna on Instagram.

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I'm 5'8 with a 33 inch inseam, and wouldn't mind an extra inch or two. So, I've never been one to offer a crying shoulder to the tall girl's lament: "I can't find anything to wear off the rack. The pants never fit, the sleeves are too short. I can't wear heels"

Hey all my Long-Limbed Sisters: cry me a river.

You get picked first for Varsity Basketball, you don't need a Bed Bath and Beyond stool to reach the high shelf in the kitchen and you can pass yourself off as a Rockette at Christmas.

But it wasn't until I bff'ed (i.e. made a best friend of) a 6 foot self-proclaimed Amazon that I truly understood the obstacles the "short-impaired" go through when it comes to something as simple as buying a pair of pants.

My Amazon buddy Tanya is a glorious 6 feet tall. She complains that her 35" inseam makes it almost impossible to find everyday clothes without paying... wait for it... an arm and a leg... for customized tailoring.

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Dear customer,

I’m delighted to let you know that a future has been secured for Long Tall Sally, under the new ownership of AK Retail Holdings Ltd. AK Retail Holdings’ portfolio includes specialist global womenswear brand Yours Clothing, a fast-growing curve retailer, BadRhino, its menswear counterpart along with Bump It Up Maternity and Yours London.

When we announced our closure back in June, we were heartbroken that Long Tall Sally would no longer exist but after weeks of negotiation, we're thrilled that the brand can now live on and our loyal customers can continue to enjoy the unique fit that’s so important to us all.

Please shop our website with confidence until Thursday 27th August. AK Retail Holdings will take over ownership of the Long Tall Sally brand on 1st September. Andrew Killingsworth, owner and CEO of AK Retail Holdings, commented:

"We are thrilled to be able to bring Long Tall Sally into our family of retailers. The brand is one we are proud to own and we look forward to engaging in meaningful dialogue with LTS customers, developing the offer and taking the brand to the next stage."

If you have queries about an existing order or return, our Customer Support Team is on hand to help throughout.

I hope you’re as excited as I am about the future of Long Tall Sally.

With my best wishes,

Alison Doherty
Chief Operating Officer

Low Heels

Large size women's shoes in up to UK size 12

Being tall with big feet should never have us feeling low, but that’s often how it can be. Is finding a pair of shoes which fit and look great with your outfit really so much to ask?

It shouldn’t be. That’s where Low Heels steps in. Specialising in large size women’s shoes in sizes 7-12UK, and offering a totally free made-to-measure service, Low Heels will end your search for that illusive ‘perfect pair’. 

Joanna Scott, the owner, says:

I’m Joanna and, at 6ft tall with Size 9 feet, I have always struggled to find the right pair of shoes – especially for evenings out. I am forever seeking a pair of low, two-inch heels, and have spent a small fortune on the right pair. I know first-hand how difficult it is to find something big enough which is still chic, well-made and doesn’t ruin your outfit.

Although many retailers do offer up to a UK Size 10, the market is still lacking larger sizes women’s shoes. I believe we should all be able to find beautiful, feminine and cute (despite the size) shoes on low heels. Something that is going to finish off your gorgeous outfit – not spoil it.

Visit the Low Heels website

It’s 6.10am. My leg is touching his. I look at his thigh as it presses against mine. Who would have thought our relationship was going to get this physical this soon? Our shoulders brush. I can feel his warmth when our flesh mingles. And it mingles a lot. I hadn’t planned this. Neither of us had. It was as much of a surprise for me as it was for him.

But here we are snuggled up side by side in our cabin. The atmosphere is heavy. He’s sound asleep and I can’t help sneaking a look at him. He’s quite beautiful. I don’t even know his name. I know it’s wrong. I’m married. I’m twice his age. But here we are, sleeping together.

He’s not the first stranger I’ve slept with. There have been many. There’s no guilt. My husband and I sleep with strangers all the time. We don’t get jealous. We don’t ask questions. We just accept that with the kind of lives that we live it’s going to happen more often than not.

I have another look at my stranger. He’s really very lovely. Often they’re not. We often sleep with fat people. Old people. Stinky people. But this morning his face is soft and dreamy. I think about licking him. Then I don’t. I drift off for a moment and when I wake feel his arm against my breast.

In the ideal world I wouldn’t be sleeping with him. I didn’t mean this to happen. But it’s not my fault. I couldn’t stop it. We were thrown into this together. By Jetstar. I’m 22b and he’s 22c. I’m smashed in beside some handsome young bloke and we can’t stop touching each other. Not on purpose. It’s the ridiculous contortion and subsequent flesh pressing required to fit anyone who isn’t five foot two into a seat these days.

I am certain that in those changeover tidy-ups between every flight the good people at Jetstar move the seats closer by one millimetre. I used to fit. I remember there being at least an inch between myself and the seat in front. I remember being able to actually use the arm rest. Even put my arm on it. These days a 6-foot-tall woman does not fit in that seat without a decent man spread. And by man spread I don’t mean some sort of sandwich filling made with processed man meat; I am referring to the body position where one must sit with one’s legs open rather than closed.

Terribly unladylike, but I can’t keep my legs together on a flight any more. If I do, my knees push into the person in front. I’m particularly long from hip bone to knee.

I remember in my youth, when I was being measured by my modelling agency, their remarking that I seemed to be normal sized everywhere except there. I have freaky femurs. So to sit with any degree of dignity I have to open my pelvis and press my knee against the person beside me. When travelling with family this is just annoying. But man spreading with strangers can be uncomfortable, embarrassing and erotic all at the same time. Especially when I’ve forgotten to wear pants. You can’t man spread in a frock. Well, you can, but you might be thrown off the flight.

It’s a strange sensation being forced to touch someone you’ve never met. It’s even more bizarre when you have to utter the seven words every man wants to hear from a woman: ‘I have to go to the toilet’. There are two choices. Get up and let me out or experience an impromptu mid air and wildly clumsy lap dance as I try to squeeze over the top. If we hit turbulence your face is going to get wedged between my air bags. And please, fellow travellers, just because you can put your seat back doesn’t mean you should.

It’s a bondage situation. If I’ve got my tray out, that two degrees of comfort you are now enjoying in the possible arc of 360 sentences me to the stocks. I ain’t going nowhere. If I have to go to the toilet it’s going to happen right there in the seat.

The thing about the Jetstar ‘getting to know you program’ is that you don’t always get seated next to someone you actually want to know. Let alone touch. It’s usually gross. So if they’re vaguely pleasant it’s mildly tolerable. I can handle it when I’m awake as I maintain a kind of ninja body awareness but it’s when I am sleeping that I come undone. It’s too close. It confuses me.

I’m a very sensual, tactile person. I like to touch. If you sleep with me I will molest you. Just ask my friend Julie. She’s still recovering from my bed-sharing with me a few months back. In future if we share a bed I’ve asked her to use a ‘safe’ word.

So this morning on my flight from Melbourne I fall asleep pressed thigh to thigh against my handsome young stranger. I’m dreaming. It’s a very very nice dream. I feel the warmth of his body beside me. I roll over, reach out and when I wake up I’m licking the side of his face. How was I to know he was the pilot? It’s amazing how much room I got after that.

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Most of my adult life I have endured being stared at. It’s unnerving. People really have a good look at me in public. I am so used to it now I barely notice, but when I was a teenager it was a constant source of anxiety. It made me feel like a freak.

When travelling with Ellen doing our show Women Like Us, she observed the phenomenon with some shock: ‘Are you aware how much people stare at you?’ It was freaking her out a bit, but I guess I am kind of used to it. Worn down by years of people having a good look. I try to not notice people noticing me. It’s the tall thing. It still shocks people if you are a tall woman. They like to get an extra long look because I don’t blend in very well. I pretend people look at me because I’m gorgeous, but I know it’s because they think I’m a bit freaky. Or I look a lot like Elle McPherson. Which I do inside my mind photographs that I keep of myself to boost my self-esteem. I sometimes wonder if these pervy strangers think I’m a super model who’s let herself go and they’re staring hard to work out which one. ‘Claudia?’ ‘Definitely not Twiggy’. It happened again the other day. I was queuing at the airport waiting to get through my gate when a businessman walked past. I saw him have a good hard look at me. I don’t make eye contact because that will just invite him in. I put up the wall. I know he’s looking because he does that thing people do when they forget to hide that they are looking: he stops right in front of me and actually looks me up and down, raises his eyebrows, nods his head and then walks past me. Fucking Weirdo. And it’s a really bad suit. Like something he’s been wearing since the 80s.

Then he comes back. I think Oh No he’s going to talk to me. Bad-for-business suit parks himself bang in front of me and asks ‘How Tall are you?’ Nice opener, mate. Does he also go up to fat people and ask how much they weigh? Ask cripples how disabled they are? It’s a really stupid question. It’s not worth talking about.

Especially to a strange man in a bad suit. I want to say 5 foot 2 but that might mean he talks to me for longer. So I say ‘6 foot’. He’s impressed. It’s like I’m a fish. A really really big fish. Then he says, ‘I know this Chinese girl who is 6 foot 3’. What am I supposed to do with that random bit of information? I say ‘Oh. That’s tall’. Does he think I might know her? That tall girls meet up at a secret club once a month and measure each other? That we drink champagne and tell tall stories? (Mainly about stupid short men who ask dumb questions.) I see nothing interesting whatsoever in a person’s height.

Especially about what a freak I am in comparison to ‘normally’ sized women. They would say they don’t mean that, but it happens so much, people are so shocked, so interested, so obliged to stop and remark a fact I have known since I was 13 that I can only come to the conclusion that they find my height aberrant and not in line with what women are supposed to be. I am tall. It’s just one very small detail about who I am. I didn’t go on a diet to get tall. I didn’t decide. It’s my DNA. It just happened. It is not a conversation. I still don’t understand why so much unsolicited chat has to revolve around something so inconsequential and so absolutely out of my control.

My being tall is about as interesting as my going up to someone and saying ‘you have brown eyes’. I have secretly marvelled at the size of a person’s rotund arse but never for a minute considered going up and sparking up a conversation with ‘how big is your arse exactly?’ ‘Hmm, wow, I know someone with an arse twice as big as yours!’ Why do they always want to tell you they have a tall friend? Is that like a homophobe saying they have a gay friend or a white supremacist saying they have a black one? Does it make their height-based transgression permissible?

Then dickhead asks: ‘How tall is your husband?’ Now he’s assuming I’m married and a heterosexual. I say ‘Three foot five – she’s a dwarf. But she’s got a massive intellect.’

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Winnipeg's Chantal Van Landeghem has picked up two swimming golds at the Pan Am Games in Toronto

CBC News Posted: Jul 15, 2015 11:42 AM CT Last Updated: Jul 15, 2015 8:02 PM CT

Manitoba's Chantal Van Landeghem, 21, stole the show on the opening night of swimming competition, finishing with two gold medals and two Pan Am records.

Her parents, Wayne and Dinah Van Landeghem, watched all of the excitement unfold from their home in Winnipeg Tuesday night.

Wayne spoke with Chantal right after she hopped out of the pool following the women's 100-metre freestyle race.

"[She's] really excited. And she could not get over the crowd. She said this is the first time where she actually could feel the crowd and hear the crowd. She said 100 per cent of the last 20 metres, the crowd like pulled her," Wayne said Wednesday.

He believes the double gold will give his daughter the confidence she needs to achieve her next goal, making Canada's Olympic team.

Three years ago, while trying to qualify for the London Olympics, Van Landeghem finished 0.01 second off of the qualifying time.

Canada's crown jewel

Chantal's former coach of six years, Tom Hainey, says Chantal is Canada's crown jewel in the 100-metre freestyle event. So the wins didn't surprise the coach at all.

Tuesday, Chantal beat out 12-time Olympic medallist Natalie Coughlin from the U.S. Chantal has the physical advantage over many of her competitors, measuring six feet three inches tall.

"I was so happy for her. When you coach an athlete and you go through what we went through together, the highs and lows – the low being missing the Olympic team by a hundredth of a second – and for her to do that in front of a home town crowd. That's where she trains, that's her home pool now. It's awesome," Hainey said.

"Her progress has been outstanding. And once we saw how she reacted to missing the team, I knew it was just a matter of time. She is a very big girl. Tall. And it takes long time for tall women to gain strength, no matter what you do."

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Kelly's Basics

Name: Kelly
Birthday: May 31st, 1981
Height: 5'10"
Location: United States

I grew up in a military family so we moved around a LOT! Of course, for someone really shy and a head taller than everyone in her grade this was quite difficult. I got teased a lot because I was way taller than everyone and painfully skinny. I cried to my mom all the time but she couldn't really understand because she isn't that tall (only 5'6"). It didn't help that I soon outgrew my older sister (by two years) and was constantly being compared to her. She was beautiful and perfect and good at everything and I was gawky and awkward. People thought I was older than I was because I was so tall and would act shocked when they found out my age (which is weird because now, like you even said, people think I'm much younger than I am!) My height was the topic of every conversation with people I had just met (it doesn't ever occur to people that there is more to you than your height and that every idiot wants to discuss it and that you are sick as hell of talking about it!!) None of the boys liked me. I actually used to wish I would become disabled and have to use a wheelchair so maybe no one would know how tall I really was! Crazy, huh?!

As an adult, things got much easier. I grew into my body a little better and developed some curves. I had boyfriends and started to feel pretty. My height was still an issue and to this day people still comment on it a LOT, but it doesn't bother me nearly as much. In fact, now I kinda like it! It's just annoying when some short guy asks how tall I am and when I tell him he insists I'm much taller because HE'S 5'10". So I must be 6'3"! Uh, hello people? Don't you think I would know? I've only been measured 80,000 times since I reached my full adult height! And I certainly wouldn't lie about it! If I was 6'3" I would say I was 6'3" with PRIDE!! So now when people do this I ask their name or some other personal fact and when they answer I say "No, that's not it." And I love that one I learned on this site where when someone asks how tall you are you say " I don't know...how much do you weigh?" That's a great one!

Interestingly, I've never been particularly attracted to very tall men. I don't like dating men MUCH shorter than me, but I have dated men a few inches shorter and it was fine! Most often I dated guys right around my height. I am now engaged and my fiance is about 5'11" so we're pretty much eye-to-eye. I just won't wear heels at our wedding! (But to all the tall women out there who DO wear heels...I wish I had your confidence! Good for you!!)

All and all, most people react favorably to my height. When strangers comment on it, I don't think they intend to be rude, although I do get extremely tired of hearing "How tall are you? Do you play basketball? Do you model? Are your parents tall?" and when I was a cashier "Are you standing on something or are you really that tall?" I just smile and try to be pleasant about it. If you act like it's a good thing, people will see it as a good thing!

I think we women have got to have confidence in our bodies, no matter what they look like. If you are good at sports (by the way, I SUCK at basketball) then by all means, use your height to your advantage that way. I was a competitive swimmer and it helped me concentrate more on what my body can do, rather that what it looks like. One thing I would NOT recommend, though, is modeling. My parents got me into this thinking it would improve my confidence and make me see my height as a good thing. It backfired. At 5'10" they said I needed to weigh less than 110 pounds (they called me a "very heavy girl" at 130) and pointed out every flaw I had from my head to my toes. Needless to say, I abandoned this idea very early on. It's just not healthy, physically or emotionally.

I am now 4 months pregnant with a little girl. If she inherits my height, I hope she doesn't suffer through childhood and adolescence the way I did. I hope I can teach her to be proud of her stature and get her involved in healthy activites that make her feel good about herself and her body. I hope I can lead by example that tall is beautiful and unique.

Kelly

Vivienne's Basics

Name: Vivienne
Birthday: April 13th, 1968
Height: 6'0"
Location: United Kingdom

Hi, I'm Vivienne, known to my friends as Viv, I live in London, England. I am 6ft and proud of every inch and if I had a choice to be short I would opt to stay tall. Being tall doesn’t mean that I cannot wear heels. I wear heels 95% of the time no shorter than 3 inches but when I am on vacation or shopping I can be seen in flats.

I am blessed with my height and have always been the tallest amongst my friends, colleagues and when I was in school. I get used to people staring at me and when they do I just say to myself ‘I must be gorgeous other wise why would they stare’. I always walk tall and confident, never slouch, shoulders back and head forward! My mother said to me ‘God made you tall so that men can look up at you’.

One issue that I have learnt to deal with is short guys. They seem to love tall women and not frightened to approach me and ask me for a date. Tall guys look, smile and then go in the other direction, maybe they have a problem with my height or they are just not confident to deal with a tall woman who meet them eye to eye, who knows but I just say ‘it’s their loss and someone else’s gain’. I now have an open mind to dating short guys.

Clothes haven’t never been an issue to me as I make 90% of my own. I believe as I am unique why should I follow what every one has. I love fitted clothes and looking like chic and glamorous and make my clothes to celebrate my unique personal style. I am a personal stylist and have my own website called www.clothes4realwomen.com 

I used to play sports when I was younger but now I can be found in the gym 5-6 days a week doing boxing (I have my own boxing gloves and pads), spinning, cardio and weights. I believe that it is important to look after yourself and eat well.

My finally message is love yourself, be proud of your height and embrace your bodies. People only make negative comments about your height because they are jealous!!!

Take care
Vivienne