Tall teens

The thing I keep coming back to when I think about Marfan is how, even when I didn't know I had it, it shaped my life. By making me tall, skinny, and flat-chested in a world of short curvey girls, I had to learn how to handle sticking out early on. I was so much taller than almost every boy in my class that I figured I no one was ever going to be interested in me, and generally they weren't. So I did other things, like read and read and read (no video games in the mid-1970s) and babysit and earn money.

I guess that's why it was so interesting for me to create a contemporary character for whom being tall was an asset, which I think it is these days. There may still be a whole raft of body issues out there, but being tall is no longer the problem it was "back in the day." Or at least I don't think it is. I see so many college students who are 5'10" or over, and their clothes fit and definitely aren't homemade. But I wonder what it's like for them in junior high. Any thoughts?