Napoleon Complex? Oh, Please.

Most short people actually–really!–like being short. Or they should, anyway. That’s the premise of a new book, Short: Walking Tall When You’re Not Tall at All, by John Schwartz.

From the Times article:

The idea that “short kids have social problems,” as Mr. Schwartz puts it, is largely a myth, eagerly embraced by makers of human growth hormone.

“When Eli Lilly was telling the government that it should be allowed to sell its growth hormone to kids who were simply small,” he writes, “it presented studies that supposedly showed that short kids are prone to teasing and bullying and ‘exclusion’ and they suffer from ‘social isolation’ and a ‘perception of lower competence.’ ”

But David E. Sandberg, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, reports that “short kids actually cope pretty well with being small.” In a study of hundreds of children in the Buffalo area, Dr. Sandberg found there was no real problem with being short and “there is little benefit to being tall.”

This is good news for the children my husband and I will someday have, since they’re destined to be short. I’ve certainly never minded being short very much, except at concerts. Well, and rallies, and pretty much any public event. And I did always want to stand on a riser. Sometimes I’d love to sweep through a room like Kate Hepburn, all bangles and wide-legged pants and flowing shirt cuffs. But these are minor, minor issues in the course of life.

But here’s the real secret to happiness, fellow short people. FIND A GOOD TAILOR. No I am not kidding. Find one now and suck it up and pay for it and your clothes will all look glorious on you.  And you will be happy. At least, if you’re shallow and vain like me.