“Tall Girl” is a very acclaimed movie that shows the struggles of Jodi (Ava Michelle), a young woman who has body issues related to her size. It shows how the kids at her school, with the exception of her best friends Fareeda (Anjelika Washington) and Dunkelman (Griffin Gluck), repeatedly taunt her about her height. Telling her things like “How’s the weather up there?” or “Nice sweatpants, Sasquatch”. Her family wasn’t a big help; her father (Steve Zahn) suggested the hormone therapy for her when she was only 3 years old, and her sister Harper (Sabrina Carpenter) who was a professional beauty queen and was the perfect example of “excellence”. This all changes when Stig (Luke Eisner) arrives.
Stig was a Swedish exchange student who’s just as tall as Jodi. This gives hope to Jodi in some way and the rest of the movie just keeps talking about their relationship.
We can say that the movie does touch upon some issues that tall girls have to endure. Speaking as a 5’11’’ (180) woman, born and raised in Puerto Rico, where it’s not very common to see tall people, I can say that some of the things that Jodi suffered are very accurate; at least in my experience, they are. People used to ask me jokingly “how’s the weather up there”, they’ve asked me if I play volleyball, because apparently that’s the only game a lady can play but that’s a discussion for another day; I’ve also been asked if I have a tall boyfriend and how tall my kids are going to be. They have called me Sasquatch, tree, giraffe, Eiffel tower, bigfoot pole, Statue of Liberty, and every other name of very tall things or animals that they could think of. Of course, when I was young this used to hit me very hard. I didn’t say cringey stuff like “You think your life is hard? I’m a high school junior wearing size 13 Nikes. Men’s size 13 Nikes. Beat that,” but I tended to just deal with my emotions in a quiet way.
There’s no denying that the movie was good when it came to showing some of the struggles a tall girl can face, but that’s the problem; that’s the only thing it shows. There are some components that they just didn’t talk or care about. For example, the setting. Yes, Jodi was tall, but she was a tall girl in a place where it’s not uncommon to see tall people. Where the given setting, it was kind of impossible to not have at least a hundred more girls with the same height. Sweden can’t be the only place that has big people, so this is kind of a misconception. Another thing that was bad written was the model or sports opportunities. Modeling and sports agencies look for tall people, and the fact that they didn’t talk about this is nerve-wracking. They just focused on the issues and self-acceptance part, which is very important, but what about the actual benefits of being tall? You can reach stuff that other people can’t, you can never get lost, modeling agencies offer you many opportunities, , etcetera, and these are just some of the very simple benefits.
It took me years to love my height. I used to look for surgeries to make me smaller, I didn’t use high heels because it made me taller, I used to always sit down so people didn’t have to look up when talking to me, and I did many other things because I was insecure. Now I love my height because I learned that being tall was just a lovely part of me; it didn’t define me. Maybe in some countries I’m not even that tall in comparison to the rest of their population, but here in my little island it’s another story. That doesn’t bother me anymore; I put on my high heels without problem and I can look in the mirror without feeling bad. The movie talked about self-acceptance, but I think that a better way to put it is: try to look at the beautiful things that you have, if you can’t that’s fine, because it’s not a bad thing to feel insecure. Just breathe and surround yourself with people that love you, because one day you’re going to see the beauty in you.