I am not a basketball player! 5 size problems tall girls face in Russia

1. Buying clothes

A 185 cms (6ft 1in) tall Russian model, winner of the local version of Next Top Model show, Maria Minogarova, has published an Instagram post with “a very strong confession.” This post with hashtag “I am not a basketball player” gathered more than 50,000 likes within three days and thousands of comments, where tall girls were happy to find soulmates.

While her schooldays - when she was a beanstalk among the boys - are long gone, she reveals she still has problems, even though her success is connected with her height and she no longer has any complexes about her height.

Because of her size she is more visible at social events where she can wear a great dress - sometimes as often as five times a week. But even having access to all the showrooms and designers she still can't find a proper dress. “Trunk hose, short sleeves, a waist that starts just under my breasts... and shoes even of my size looks swollen, though I am a size 40 [U.S. 11], not 55 like Shaquille O'Neal.”

Girls who commented on her post said they were happy about the current fashion trend for short pants, as now it’s easier to look ‘normal’ in their ill-fitting outfits.

2. Tactless reactions

“Why people don’t react anymore to bald, childfree, businesswomen, lesbians, girls with body modifications (I have nothing against any of them), but when they see TALL, they are like ‘wow, I can tell you are a sleeper’ or ‘Poor you’,” Galina wrote in Instagram.

One of the most frequent questions tactless people ask is if it’s complicated to find a boyfriend when you are so tall. People also find it appropriate to make jokes like, ‘which hormones were you on?' or ‘were you hanging on a bar for a couple of years?’ and of course, ‘are you a basketball player?’

3. Childhood complexes

Most of the girls really felt they were not “like others” from childhood. In sports lessons classmates were often put in rows according to their height and tall girls stood at the front with all the other boys and girls behind.

In Victoria’s opinion tall girls are influenced from childhood. “My mother always insisted I should forget about wearing heels.”

“Boys didn’t want to go out with me because they had a long way to go to reach my height. Only the bravest would ask me to dance at a disco,” Anna writes.

4. You will have to reach things in high places

Girls joke that they frequently work as ‘ladder girls’ and are asked to take something from the top shelf. Even their own mothers use them like this when they need something in the kitchen.

“Recently in a toy store I was asked to reach for that doll,” Polina from Krasnodar writes.

5. Taking a photo challenge

Sveta says she heard many times in different situations, “You are so tall, please stand behind.”  Even to make an Instagram post for the flashmob it was difficult to find a photo because she usually sits down to take pictures with her “tiny friends.”

Read more: Why Russian women wear stiletto heels

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