Why Does This Happen To Younger Tall Girls? | The Sexualization of Tall Teens and Preteens

On this podcast, we've talked about the fetishization or sexualization of tall women, like when weird people show up in our social media dms asking for videos or pictures of our feet or long limbs, or some folks express their fascination with our stature and want to be dominated by us, or people commenting death by snooz snow under our videos. Listen. Okay, you do you like whatever you like. That's amazing and all, but we should probably be a little bit more careful about the things we say on the internet and the things we say to complete strangers. Anyways, much of this stuff happens to adult tall women, But what if I told you that maybe something similar happens to younger tall girls. Yeah, we're talking about preteens and teens. It's truly disheartening. So in today's episode, we are talking about the sexualization of younger tall girls, how that affects their mental health and self esteem into adulthood, and some important tips and reminders for parents of these younger tall girls. So, without further ado, let's get into it. Good morning, everybody. You are currently listening to a tall girl's podcast hosted by a tall girl named India. I hope everyone who's tuning in today is doing super fantastic. Before I get into this episode, I do want to say make sure you're following me on my socials at a Tall Girls podcast on Instagram, TikTok, and pinches so that you can stay update on all of the latest podcast episodes and catch a glimpse of my everyday life. Also, feel free to leave me a review and let me know how tall you are. I'm genuinely curious. I also have a monthly newsletter, make sure you subscribe to that. Everything is gonna be linked in the description. I hope everyone is doing fantastic and is enjoying this weird weather. Well, if you're listening in America, specifically in the Northeast area, we have like two snowstorms and one week, like the first day it just came down heavy, like it was a lot of snow, and then it melted because the weather was nice, and then it snowed again. So but right now it's like very nice outside and it's almost fifty and the snow is melting, so that's great, but then they're supposed to be now again in the next few days. Climate change is definitely something I will say that guys protect our planet please because what is happening right now. But nonetheless, I hope you guys are staying safe in whatever weather you're having right now. Back to the topic of this episode, I just want to say that in general, all women are sexualized, like every single day doesn't matter, the height doesn't matter, the race doesn't matter, the age scarily enough, I just want to make sure that I acknowledge that in the beginning of this episode. But you know, because I'm a tall girly, because I'm a tall woman, it's interesting to explore this from the lens of, you know, being tall, being a tall woman. One thing that isn't spoken about enough is how younger tall girls are sexualized, you know, like when they get cat called by adults or get comments about looking grown and they're like fourteen. And I actually spoke about this in a TikTok video, so I'm just going to play that really quick. Something that really isn't spoken about enough is how younger tall girls are treated as if they're older, like they're expected to be more mature or are given more responsibility, harsher punishments and criticisms because their height makes them appear older, and this increases their likelihood of being sexualized at an earlier age because their perceived as grown, which is honestly very disheartening. Anyways, would love to hear your thoughts and any stories you may have in the comments, and the comments that I got under this video were very interesting. One person shared I was only ever cat called when I was in elementary school, never as an adult. It was a disgusting realization. I had no idea what was happening at the time. I'd get honked at and invited to parties by college age people. Another said I'll never forget a grown man with white hair running past me while I was on a run at thirteen or fourteen, and he said nice lugs. Another said I've been five eighth since sixth grade. I remember when I was in eighth grade and this adult man was hitting on me. I told him my actual age and he said that since I look grown, it was all right. Another shared I was five eleven by the age of thirteen and genuinely did look older, so much so that I was approached by a twenty eight year old man at the age of fourteen with my mother at a store. He asked me for my number right in front of her, and he looks absolutely sick when I told him how old I was. So yeah, I can relate to this. Thank God that one guy had no ill intent, But my entire life I've been a target, it feels. Last one, I wore a bikini to a family pool party at thirteen and the men had a loud conversation about how hot I was going to be at sixteen. My father participated in this conversation. Oh and you know that last part about her father participating in that conversation is just absolutely terrible. But we're going to get back to that later on. And these are just a few stories that I've shared. Who knows how many other young tall girls have experiences or have experienced worse. Now may maybe wondering why does this happen? Why are younger tall girls getting cat called? Why are men coming up to them, hitting on them and continuing to hit on them even after finding about their age. We're also going to talk about that later. Why are younger tall girls being sexualized? It's because many people assume that these younger tall girls are older than they actually are. That seems to be the pattern in these comments. I'm actually interested to know tall women when you were younger, did anyone ever assume that you were older than you actually were because of your height? Like for me, when I was fourteen, a lot of people thought I was eighteen with a baby face. Now, the reason of thinking that they're older still does not give them the right to be sexualized and for them to be put in like uncomfortable situations where people are talking to them in a certain way or you know, just being weird. However, like even the example of the twenty eight year old man going up to the fourteen year old tall girly in the store when she was in the store where her mom, Like, you know, sometimes I would like to say to give them the benefit of the doubt, because you know, maybe he genuinely thought that she was in her twenties because of her hide or whatever it may be. But at least after she told him her age, he was like, oh, no, okay, that's a little bit rude, but that's like a genuine natural reaction of a normal person of hearing that, oh, this person's like fourteen years younger than me, and as a minor, no, you know what I mean. So sometimes I personally consider it to be genuine, but that still doesn't excuse weird comments like nice legs, like what, And then even considering that some younger women, younger girls like to wear makeup and just in general, especially when you wear that at a younger age, and depending on how you do it, of course, when you wear makeups, sometimes it makes them look older than they actually are. So maybe some people could also think that they're older because they're tall and they're wearing makeup. Again, it's like case by case, it depends on the situation, it depends on the context. I just want to acknowledge every scenario here, but my thing is when you find out how old the younger girl is, when you find out that she's a minor, and you still talk to her and try to hit on her, like that comment about how she was in eighth grade and she told the man her age and he was like, oh, like, it's all right because I thought you were older. What that's crazy. It's just weird when a person, the adult here, finds out that this younger girl is a minor and they still try to continue. It's just like so weird. Let's listen to this one story. I'm thirty seven years old, right now, I'm five eleven, but I've been this exact same height since i was fourteen years old, and I was five ten in like fifth grade, right, so, like you know, like back in the day, the mall was the place to hang out. You would go there with your girlfriend just walk around for really no reason. And the amount of men, grown men who would approach me then, like once I would realize what's going on, I would tell these people in my age like, hey, like i'm twelve, I'm thirteen. Who would always be like, oh I thought you were older because you're tall. Mind you, I had a baby, Vace, you could tell, right, Okay, So then they knew and then they kept talking. After they knew I was a kid, they kept talking. It didn't matter. And this didn't just happen at the mall. It happened all the time. It's just a very scary world out there. So if you're a preteen or a teenager listening to this episode right now, please be very careful. Now these younger tall girls are pearing older because of their height, the implications, the consequences. I don't know which word is correct. I need to keep it. The saurus next to me honestly. But one of those goes far beyond being sexualized, in that we're expected to act older, We're expected to grow up faster, we're expected to be more mature, and that affects us into adulthood. Let's listen to this. I've been thinking about something I don't hear talked about enough. When it comes to being a tall woman. A lot of us grow up faster emotionally, and not necessarily by choice. When you're tall as a kid, people automatically assume you're older. They talk to you differently, they expect more from you, and they often give you less grace. You hear things like you're so mature for your age, or you can handle it even when you're still figuring things out just like everyone else, And over time you start. To live up to that. You learn to self regulate early, you learn to be responsible, calm and composed, and you learn to not take up too much space emotionally. The wild part is that maturity often isn't natural. It's a It's a response to being perceived as older, stronger, and more capable than you actually are at that age. And then we grow up as tall women and wonder why we feel emotionally older than our peers, why we're so independent, and why asking for help feels so deeply uncomfortable. If you relate to this, just know you're not alone. You adapted to what the world expected of you at such a young and tender age. Even some of the comments under my TikTok video highlighted this. One person said, when I was waitressing in college, my boss told me shorter girls make better tips because customers perceive them as children. And when I watch the shorter girls make mistakes with their tables, they would just giggle and laugh, and their tables would laugh. But when the taller girls would try the same, their customers more often would seem annoyed. Another person said, my niece is taller for her age, and people think she should be more mature and less childish than my other niece who's the same age. I shut that down as soon as I can, though we are not doing that. This whole combination of the younger tall girls appearing older, the sexualization, people assuming that we should we should act more like adults, we should be less childish, we should be more mature, be the bigger person, both figuratively and literally. I guess stuff like this leads to hyper independence when we're older people, pleasing tendencies, hyper awareness of our bodies, constant self monitoring, and again, stuff like this is carried into our adulthood where it affects how we show up in the world. It affects how we show up in the workplace, how we show up in relationships platonic or romantic. It affects how we show up for ourselves. And even going off of the comment about the niece and the family situation, it really does go to show that parents play a big role in this. Like, apparently there are parents who are telling their tall daughters to act their height, not their age. What does that even mean? Are you telling these children? Keep that in mind, children to act like adults? I mean, we're only kids for so long. We're only kids for a short amount of time. They have their whole entire lives to act like adults. Why are we telling these children to act like adults now? Like that could also lead to very dangerous situations as well, because you know, yeah, act like an adult, they're gonna start thinking about doing adult things. Do we really want children doing adult things? No, we don't even think about The comment from earlier about how this girly she was talking about how when she was thirteen, her father was participating in that conversation about how, oh, she's gonna be hot when she's sixteen. I'm sorry, somebody needs to run a background check on that man, because not only is he saying this about a minor, a younger girl, a teenager, he's saying this about his daughter, his teenage daughter, to other men. I just hope that she's safe and out of those situation. For real, parents play a big role in a tall girl self esteem. The way they talk to in a about her in regards to her height can help with confidence down the road or lead to insecurities. Listen, I will tell y'all. When I was growing up, especially in the era of me being an athlete, I by family members, I was called goofy, I was called dufis I was. They were telling me that I was awkward because of my height and if I didn't play sports. I know it's more so like tied to sports rather than overall high, but still, I mean, it's still involved hight. They were saying that if I didn't play sports, particularly basketball, I would look stupid because what else am I going to do with my height. I look stupid not playing any sports. I look goofy, I look like a dufus. And you know, saying hearing that from people who are literally supposed to protect you and have your best interests at heart at such a young age, especially eight, nine, ten eleven, like that is crazy. And that played a big role in why I hated being tall, because I genuinely thought I look awkward, I look stupid, and I look goofy because of my height. And that was a huge reason why I hated being tall for so long. And I don't know if the adults were just trying to say that so that I could play sports and I ended up not doing it into my adulthood anyways. I don't know they were just saying that just so I could play sports or whatever it may be. But I don't think that these people really understand the effect that they have on younger children, especially their daughter's nieces and whoever. Whatever the relationship may be, even if it's not coming from the parents, and if it's coming from other family members, the parents should definitely do their due diligence. Yes, have conversations with their child about inappropriate behaviors from adults and strangers, stand up for her when people make inappropriate comments about her body, help her realize that her height is amazing, and remind her that if you're twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, I would even include eighteen here, honestly, all the teens, all the teens. Not because you're within that age range. People should not see you as grown. People should not be saying, oh, you're grown. People should not be saying you look grown. People should not be saying, oh my gosh, like you're so mature for your age, especially older men. Please please'm like, please have these conversations with people. Please have these conversations with your tall daughters. People should not be viewing you as grown in that age range just because you're tall. You're tall, and you hit puberty. Like please. Anyways, that's enough of my rant. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode. I really appreciate it, and I appreciate you of course. As always, feel free to hit me up on my socials on a Tall Girls podcast and let me know what you thought about this episode. When you were a younger or tall girl, did you have experience with people sexualizing you when you were a younger tall girl. Did you know people also think you were older and treat you a certain way because they thought you were older or perceived you was older when you were younger. Did your parents and family members also play a big role in your self esteem in regards to your height, whether negative or positive. Let's have a conversation in the comments in my DMS. The whole point of this is to really talk about these things and bring these things to light, and to make sure that you know that you are not the only one who experienced this, and you are not alone, and we're all in this together. It was like the twentieth anniversary of High School Musical the other day. I think they should have popped out with high School Musical, for honestly, at that time I would have ate that up. Anyways, thank you again for tuning in. I really appreciate you. You're awesome, You're amazing, and I genuinely hope that you have an amazing rest of your week, life, day, month, year, whatever it is for you, and I'll catch you in the next one. Good Night and goodbye.