by Lisa H Warren

Created on: July 31, 2008

Unless there are reasons beyond a teen's just being shorter than most kids his age, HGH should not be considered an option.

My opinion on this comes from decades of living my adult life, feeling fortunate to have barely reached a height of 5'2". As a child, I wasn't just "one of the short kids". I was THE "tiniest girl in school". At six years old I was given special vitamins because I wasn't growing as fast as the doctor would have expected. Later, it would be become clear that I was a late bloomer. As my father walked with me into my new junior high school, kids (who thought they were being helpful) yelled, "You're at the wrong school." My father was a short man (5' 6"), and an awful lot of women thought he was very handsome. My mother was the height I am now.

Thirty years after I graduated from high school I met a woman from my graduating class. When I told her I had two sons and a daughter she asked if my daughter was "tiny", the way I had been. Other kids were known for other things in their school days. I was known for being "tiny" (freakishly tiny). It was extremely difficult for me, too, because I couldn't easily find clothes that were what all the other kids were wearing. In those days there weren't children's clothes that were miniature versions of teenagers' clothes. There were "big girls' clothes" and "little girls' clothes". There was a department store or two that did offer a "semi-teen" shop, so that's where I had to get my clothes (even when I was a teen).

I hated it. I secretly worried that I may be a "midget" (that's a term that was acceptable in those days). When, like so many other teens, I so desperately wanted to look like everyone else and look "cool", it was impossible. I looked like a little girl. Not only did I hate being so short, but I hated being me. It didn't stop me from having friends or enjoying a social life, and it didn't stop me from trying to look my best, but I did hate it.

Of course, this was a time when girls who were small were seen as "feminine" or "dainty", so even though I hated being so short there were kids who actually didn't seem to see it as all that bad.

I wanted to at least get to be 5' tall because, in my own mind, I believed that being that tall would mean I was not a "midget". By the time I got my driver's license at sixteen, I was 5' tall. After high school graduation I finally reached the 5' 2".

What I learned during my teen years was that heels gave me a couple of inches in height. Since my girlfriends were

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