Sarah Vain and Tall

When I was in high school, they ran these horrible (and long since outlawed) peer-comparison fitness tests.  Basically, they put all us students together and made us run, jump, flex, climb rope… and weigh ourselves.  Then they measured us against each other by age and ranked our ‘fitness’.   I came second last.

Oh, my: did I cry.  And were my parents ever angry.  Tall folks themselves, they understood how cruel this kind of treatment can be.  For a start, there was no way my spaghetti arms were ever going to hoist my body weight up a rope or into a pull-up: no way, no how.  As to flexibility and dexterity: don’t get me started.  My body was growing at something like three inches per year at that point and I had next to no control over its muscles.  Matter of fact, I think those muscles were having a hard time just staying attached to the bone!   The idea of being able to reach over my feet or dash around witches’ hats?  Would have been laughable, if it didn’t hurt so bad.

And to make it all so, so much worse, the body measurements.  My weight and my hip and waist measurements were read out along with everybody else’s.  Dear god, I am cringing just thinking about it all these years later.  All those cute (how I hated that word) girls my age were 50, 55, 60 kilos at most.  One, I remember, was 45 kilos.

I weighed 70 kilograms and my hip measurement was about 30cm bigger than the ‘normal girls’ at around 100cm… and still growing.

It was a nightmare.

Now, several years past teenagerhood (ahem), I weigh a bit more.  I am still bigger than average at the same kind of ratio.  I’m pretty fit, weigh around 75 kilos and have a size 16-ish, 110cm hip.  People get a shock when they find out I buy anything from a 14 to an 18 depending on the manufacturer.  But you know what?

I’m over it.

So here’s my quick facts on “fat”.  I am talking here especially to younger tall girls who are dealing with a puberty double whammy: normal ‘growing pains’ made even worse by the fact that your body so different to everyone else’s.

1)  You’re Perfectly Proportioned. Ever wondered at the stupidity of clothing brands that put more length in the size 18 than in the 10?  While it seems crazy to you and I, we have to remember that on average, it’s quite reasonable to assume that a shorter person is less wide than a taller person.  Think about your foot length.  Do you worry that your feet are fat?  Probably not.  And yet they’re likely bigger than most people’s feet.  They’re perfectly proportioned to you.

2)  Your Skeleton is Heavy. You’ve heard that muscle weighs more than fat?  One liter of muscle weighs around 1.06 kg and one litre of fat weighs around 0.9 kg. In other words, muscle is about 18% denser than fat.  Bones are even heavier.  As a tall person there is more of you, keeping you alive.  Your skull, your hips, even your feet bones are all heavier even though for your body, they are in proportion.

Even more important: your body weight (not your fat but your total weight, so height is a factor) determines bone density.  The more your bones have to do, the bigger and denser and stronger they will grow.  Thus, the taller you are, the bigger and better your bones.  Bone growth is fantastic and never t0 be avoided. So keep in mind that some of your so called “extra” weight is the good stuff that will prevent osteoporosis.  Don’t you even think about trying to limit your bone growth!

3)  Sorry if I’m Out of Line, But You’re Probably Not Dressing Thin. If you don’t have a lot of options in the way that you dress, for instance wearing ill-fitting or mens’ clothes, you and others will get an optical illusion that you take up a lot of space.  Shop at specialist stores when you can.  Try to avoid big, billowy tees and tops and cinch clothes in wherever you’re happiest doing so.  For me, it’s my waist.  It’s a visual ‘stop’ in my body line.  I would never dream of wearing a long Empire line gown, because on me it would look more like a muu-muu.

In my teen years, the moment I stepped out of XL men’s tees and too-short jeans, and into a slim fitting dress, I shocked my peers.  They couldn’t believe I had those great curves.

4)  You’re Probably Slouching. Stop.  Stand up straight.  I am such a broken record on this topic but it’s SO important.  Slouching makes you look fat — don’t do it.  Just don’t.

5)  Fat is in the Mind of the Beholder. This is not a pleasant one, nor do I have an easy fix.  Some people — especially dumb little teenage boys whose only opinions on female bodies come from their peers and online p$#n, see a tall shape and their brains can only interpret the impression of size.  The only way I know to deal with this one is to wait until the boys grow up into men.

Can you think of any more ways in which height gets misrepresented as overweight?  Do you have a story that could help somebody else?  I’d love to collect ideas or stories in the comment box for others to read.

While I’m here, some of you might be interested in this link from Kathleen Fasanella, a fashion industry guru.  In this post she talks about why designers don’t add lines for the (more lucrative than tall) plus size market, and much of what she has to say really applies even more so to tall folks.   It really says to me that we need lots of small businesses catering only for talls, so that we can get a range of styles and good fit.  It’s no use complaining about the fact that Levis and The Gap don’t cater to us: we have to start our own thing.