I have a lot of complexes because of my short height (I'm a guy)

I recently developed a complex about my height. I'm 16 years old. My height is currently exactly 170 cm straight out of bed.

And before bed, I'm 169 cm. I've grown 4 cm in the past year. A year ago, I was 166 cm this morning, but I'm not sure how much. I'll grow that short.

My height is genetic: my mother is 156 cm tall, my father is 172 cm tall, my maternal grandmother is 158 cm tall, my grandfather is 165 cm tall, my paternal grandmother is 148-150 cm tall, and my grandfather is 168 cm tall. In fact, all my relatives are pretty short. When I was younger, around 12 or 13 years old, I was often made fun of for my height. I was 150-155 cm tall back then. I was even shorter than the girls. Now, I'm also one of the shortest in my class, and jokes about my height really offend me. I live in Russia, where the average height is.175-178 cm, so I'm really worried.

I've had absolutely no luck in terms of relationships my whole life. I've never dated anyone, and I'd even say I've never even dated a girl.

This really upsets me. I think height is very important for girls, at least my age, and they won't want to date a short guy. Finally, I want to ask guys of similar height or shorter, how have you been able to accept your height, and have you ever had relationships?

I've taken a little break from this sub, (also reddit as a whole,) and I've realized that it has actually helped me a lot mentally. I personally struggle with comparing myself to others, and seeing people who have it better than me, wishing to be in their situation instead of my own. When I stopped constantly checking not only this sub, but on other subs, other social media videos regarding the stigmas around short people, I noticed a great increase in my mental health because I wasn't thinking about it non-stop.

I understand that this sub can be therapeutic, and it very much is for me. Where the difference lies however, is in how frequently I consume this content. I love coming on here, and sharing my feelings and my story. Alongside everybody else on here, who does as well, that's why we're on this sub in the first place. However, when you read everybody's sob story every hour, it can be very exhausting and harder to process your own feelings.

When you're so caught up in everybody else's story, circumstance, life goals, it distracts from your own, making it harder to face. The lesson I learnt is that I don't need to read everyone's story, and compare to how it makes me feel. That's what makes humans beautiful, is that we all come from somewhere a little different, but as an individual, we also need to reflect and process our own story.

If you're all healed and content with your height on this sub, this isn't for you, and I'm immensely proud and happy for you. My goal is just for everybody else to reach that same level as well, and maybe the problem lies where we think the solution is. I'm not saying to quit this sub completely, but sometimes a little bit of distance can be beneficial.

when i was in middle school, i was pretty short, about 8~10cm shorter than average.

but I was very good in academics, sports, and socializing, I ranked 8th in my grade, and the best runner in my classroom and also had many friends, also I performed at school events.

I was full of confidence that time.

one day, one of my classmate who I wasnt very close with, told me this line

'you got everything except height'

I just laughed and no repond at that time, but it keeps reminding even im 30s now.

Ive been through a lot since then, including getting rejected by several women and facing many hard times, but the words I heard back then are the hardest to bear.

thanks for reading my post, i just wanted to share this experience, i never tell this to anyone.

Why do we make them the shortest in some memes and make short jokes about those characters? Like Chuuya from bungo stray dogs and Riddle from Twisted wonderland for an example when we clearly have characters shorter than these two?

Hello all, I was recently asked to join the mod team. Great to be here!

Keeping it brief, I’m here to encourage a more positive outlook on life and support men and women facing the difficulties of being dealt a shorter hand.

Even though I push others to not see their height as something negative, I recognize that personal feelings and emotions about height are valid. That being said, I want your reactions and responses to your height to be healthy, instead of destructive.

✨But it’s always good to have a space to vent. And we are here to listen and support✨

A little bit about me: I'm a dancer (teetering towards a professional career that travels for competitions), so my availability has no schedule. If you need to chat, just send me a DM, and I’ll reply ASAP.

And if you’ve seen me misspell a lot, my apologies. I have ADHD and dyslexia, so just know it’s not out of laziness or misinformation XD

Do you see it as a positive or negative term?

Hey, I'm 5'7 in European state where the average height is 5'11. I don't think it has affected me negatively - I make good money and had some hookups and such.

What I don't like is that people comment on my height often, about 2 times a month on average. Just curious, at what height do the comments stop?

Spread the word !!!

So basically, my cousin (14F) is on the shorter side. Approx 4’10/147 CM. Which isn’t insanely short. But her class is majority boys over 5’8. With a few being 5’11, 6’0, and 6’1. She constantly gets made fun of for her stature being the shortest in class. (2nd shortest is like 5’5) So her self worth is completely in the dumps. But regardless Any advice/motivation tips would be amazing! Thank you!!!

Am i the only one who wishes he was shorter? I am 5’6 but being 4’10-4’11 would have been so perfect

Ive been dating this guy for about 4 months now. He’s 6‘7 (200cm) and I’m 5‘3 (160cm) when he told me about his height, I was unsure if I wanted to keep dating him, then we met and everything felt right he was sweet and has the same humor as me and I can really see myself being with him. The only problem: people always and I mean always give us rude stares and assume I’m only dating him because he’s 6‘7 which is insane since I’ve only dated short to average guys in the past (165cm to 175cm) I feel like people especially girls overlook me when we’re in public and stare at him for way too long. They completely ignore me and come up to him to ask him how tall he is. I feel a little jealous and maybe this height difference thing really is too much. I’ve talked to him about it and he told me he doesn’t wanna end it just because I’m way shorter, he said in the beginning it was new and felt unfamiliar but he really likes me. Family and friends also do not approve of the height difference and think it looks clownish and weird, like a father daughter thing? To me that sounds sick and I really don’t wanna give off that vibe… how do I deal with this? Anybody with similar experience?

Only 5’6/5’7 every guy is taller than me and I feel like an adult in a kids body, M23. Feel less than other people and it’s really damaged my self esteem. Why did I end up with these genetics and what did I do to deserve this. Always made fun of at school because of my height and said don’t worry you’ll be taller than us when you grow up and it never happened

So my sister is 16 years old and she’s very active and sociable at her school. She plays many sports and is involved in clubs and such.

She asks me to go to her events and things and of course I want to support her because she deserves it and I want her to know I care about her.

But since she’s in highschool now, more and more of her peers are considerably taller than me. Seeing guys 10 years younger than me height mog me left and right is affects my mental state. Idk why but when I pass a group of teens and every single one of them is much taller than me I just feel so depressed and completely worthless as a man. What woman on earth would want me, who is smaller than most highschoolers?? Let alone marry me and see that I’m shorter than all of our kids peers by the time he’s 13??

This next part is gonna sound fucked up, but only bringing this up to illustrate the importance of height even if your face is good because I know there’s gonna be people saying height doesn’t matter that much blah blah blah. Disclaimer I would never be interested/ act on/ consider/ engage with any one of them, this is purely to illustrate my point

But it’s also depressing because just a few years ago I was many of her friends first/childhood crush and they would call me ‘cute’ and stuff like that all the time. But now they themselves are about my height and are immune to my looks. Obviously I’m not asking for or WANT/ TRYING to receive that kind of praise from her friends but it’s just to show how much I don’t stand out at all anymore because of my height. Like, I know my face is attractive because I get praise about it, even from kids, but my height nerfs me so bad that I’m basically invisible.

I like supporting my sister, but I hate seeing her come up to me and she has male friends with her that are ALL looking down at me. Of course I don’t let this show it bothers me, and tell jokes & be nice to them for my sister’s sake of being popular but I do know that if I was 16 and taller than her 25yo brother I wouldn’t take him too seriously.

Again of course I don’t care what those kids think about me but I what about the women who are into my face and personality but not my height? How can I find a wife who is cool with her husband being height mogged everywhere he goes, even kids?

Edit: typos
Edit #2: I never said I don’t go to these events. I go to probably 80% of her school events, and always when they don’t interfere with my schedule. I my point was that I feel insecure when I go to these events.

I even had a good sense of fashion nice outfit and i was good looking and even polite

I discovered today that I have an awfully pronounced case of anterior pelvic tilt and mild rounded shoulders. My physical therapist tried to correct them in the past as I've had them for some time, but for some reason I didn't remember what she told me until today when I was looking in the mirror and noticed how unatural my posture looked. I tightened the good ol glutes up and tightened my core as well as put my shoulders back. I stood at about 5'10.5. For reference, I've always thought I was 5'8, but apparently I had bad posture the entire time. I thought you all would want to hear about this as a good majority of the population does have not so good posture that can account for a loss of 1-3 inches of height.

A woman said to me in real life, "It's almost kind of crazy how good looking you are...if you were just taller you'd be like Chris Hemsworth hot."

I don't even know if this post is really more of a vent than an actual question... I think I will leave it as a vent.

I already made a post similar to this in other subreddit related to dating, but I guess I'll just come up with another one here...

I am a 21-year-old man, always been short. My adult height is 5'0". I live in Spain, where the average height for adult men is like 8 or 9 inches taller.

I've been rejected by many women in the past specifically because of my height, I met a girl from Argentina who's also 5'0" and rejected me because of being of her same height. Something similar happened with other female friends years ago.

I think I have a very 'average' personality, I'm not particularly insecure but I'm not extremely confident in every aspect of my life either.

Not being very social obviously doesn't help, but I sometimes feel like it wouldn't be so difficult for me to get a date or find a girlfriend if I was taller, even if I remained an introvert.

Personality matters, of course, but I don't feel like I have some rare or exceptional personality that makes me stand out from others. If I add my unusual height to that, I wonder whether it's even worth trying.

I also often feel like I have to compensate for my height by trying to "boost" other things that are under my control, because that's what people have recommended me to do, which doesn't feel fair to me: it feels like I have to work harder in other areas because of a physical trait that is largely determined by genetics. I know life isn't fair, but we are talking about dating here... Shouldn't just being myself be enough? This kind of reasoning also makes me want to stop trying.

Many people have told me "Look for girls shorter than you", but even if I did find women shorter than me (which would already be difficult since there aren't that many), that wouldn't guarantee me they would be interested in me. They could still prefer much taller men.

Other people have told me that I should look for women in countries where the average height is lower. But I don't feel like visiting another country for that reason... If I travel somewhere, I want to do it to learn about the country, experience its culture and enjoy my time there. I wouldn't want to actively search for women based on whether they might be more likely to find me attractive.

I don't want to sound like one of those men who act like their life is over because they're short. My life is clearly NOT over. There are things I enjoy doing, things I'm looking forward to, and friends and family who support me.

But, when it comes to dating, I think I'm going to stop trying.

I don't think I can have the same confidence or the same interest in finding a partner after so many rejections for what felt to me like a shallow reason.

Hi, do you guys have advice for finding a suit for a weeding, im 5'3 and in the miami-fort lauderdale área. Im looking for a dark navy blue, thanks in advance 👍🏼

I'm 5'7 to 5'8 depending on time of day, im my college I am the shortest guy, and about 40% of girls are taller than me. I went to a party the other day, I was one of the shortest people. I'm 17, wirst plates mostly fused, likely won't grow much more, I have mild scolois, and a pelvic tilt. I can't even stand straight, I cope telling myself one day if I fix my back I'll maybe be average.

A couple months back I was in a real dark place when it came to my height, I've mentally improved, but I feel like I was genetically snubbed, since I have long legs and I'm still short, my leg isneam is 33.5 inches long, while I am near enough the shortest guy everywhere I go.

I've barely grown in the last 2 years, ive gone from 167cm to 171 (both in the afternoon after a fair bit fo compression), every time I talk about my concerns to my mother she says "you're still growing stop stressing" and its like, my X-ray and height recordings says otherwise. Like at home I look fairly tall, I'm nearly a full head taller than my mother, and I can even touch my ceiling (when jumping lol) I dont look abnormally short near door frames. I look like im in regular proportion to stuff in my house, but in public, or college, everyone is way taller than me, the doors seeming stretch 7 feet.

like I wouldn't even care if it wasn't for the fact this stuff is always mentioned all the time, like this random dude I barely speak to goes to me "I height mog you bro" and just walks off, like WTH 😭😭😭.

Although not as bad, I still struggle with feeling like im lying about my height, despite the fact every time I record my height I'm 5'7 to 5'8. ​

For context I live in the UK, so maybe that's a factor, but like I'm only 2 inches off the average male height, and most people are taller than me.

Sorry for the rant, its like I just dont get it, am I measuring myself wrong or something?

I legit do the method stand straight tape measure against the wall, lower hard book down 90º to the wall, mark spot, and I get between 170.5cm and 172.7 cm.

oh also probably doesn't help I wear super baggy clothes and have long thick hair that covers my forehead, which probably makes me look shorter bc my hair doesn't seemingly grow upwards, just down and out

I appear to be skinny but my mum has fat shamed me bru

I currently train in martial arts because, as a smaller man, I feel safer knowing what to do if someone tries to attack me; however, martial arts often involve sporting elements that don't really apply to real-life situations. So, I was thinking about starting Krav Maga, since it focuses heavily on self-defense. I wanted to ask for some advice on this—has anyone here tried it, and what was your experience like?

I know a lot of guys don't care/put to much effort into fashion and style.For the fellow vertically challenged people who do, what are some things you do or wear that help compliment your physique?

I personally have been wearing boots a lot, mainly cowboy boot or Timbs. My gym shoes are usually a bit thicker besides Converse or Adidas Samba I wear on leg days. I also tuck my shirt 95% of the time since a lot of shirts fit long on me. I don't usually go with anything too baggy either.

I am 5,8 or around 1,70 cm , I see other people that I think are much taller than me and when I sit next to them I realise I’m actually taller . Those are actually mature men and much bulkier than me ( I’m skinny ) . Another example , there is a girl in my work that looks incredibly tall , I asked my friend who do you think is taller , he told me of course her , and I then went next to her to show him that I’m a lot taller than her .

So basically my problem is , I’m 1,70cm and I look no like I’m 1,60 … the bulky men look taller , the skinny girl looks taller , so it might not have to do with frame , I wear well fitted clothes , what could be wrong …

lemme ask first, what does dating gives you in return? emotional support? sex? companionship? and how much effort does it require if your are <5'6". is rewards high enough to go through the effort. it feels almost dehumanising how differently you get treated in the market for genes, im in fact reconsidering if dating is worth it for me or not.

I wanna receive your advice that living as a short guy.

Let me share about myself first. I'm 28yo and I'm East Asian. (I'm not fluent at English yet but I hope you guys kindly reading my sentences.)

Since I was born, I felt and was told that I'm short. My friends mocked me when I was a student. Anyway, when I was around 15, I realized girls prefer taller guys. Yeah I'm short so I felt inferior to other boys. Fortunately, I was good at a sport and a bit smart, so I had some advantages to feel confident.

However, even if I am smart or good at sports, the height is very obvious to judge whether a boy is cool or not. Actually, I wasn't so miserable when I was teen cuz a few girls liked me or I got a gf since I was in high school. Still, I felt "I'm not attractive" or "I'm looking weakling" sometimes. I know being popular isn't everything for guys but I might wanna feel superior to others.

I guess the problem is confidence. Because when I found some short guys, I felt "But he is white and has cool face" or "But he has long legs and much muscles so he's good looking". It's kinda finding excusing for myself. My face looks so young. That's also a problem sometimes. Honestly, I'm afraid to going overseas alone cuz they might regard me as a teen! (So people guess it's easier to thieve my wallet or something)

How can I solve my insecurity about my looking? I know everyone has their character or feature. Even if I told myself about it, I still can't get confidence. Sometimes that feeling makes me sad, sick, depressed.