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male
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anonymous
writes: Hi, please could you help me? I am 15 and all my life so far I have been small - but recently I grew taller than my sis and my mom (who is small anyway) but I'm still not as tall as my mates or most 15 year olds but smaller people than me before are taller now. Girls never believe my age and I lack confidence because of it. Will I forever remain small? Does anyone have any tips on how to grow? Is it cause I sleep only for 5-7 hours a nite? Please help!!
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reader, anonymous, writes (3 December 2006): hi i am 15teen year old gal and im 4ft9 + i dnt care coz i am who i am + datz me wel im 1 of de shortest in my year. ppl r alwayz sayin awwww bles u yr sooo cute, but sum do say u midgets but i dnt care coz it dnt really bother me i jus say wot eva + tel den 2 shut der mouth coz im 15teen + datz not wot i should worry bout. i might grow or jus stay dis height but i ave til 21. my familyz short sum even shorter dan me i no damn !!!!!!!!!!!!! wel at least i can find clothes dat fit me coz im short and jeanz r cheaper lol and also fik bout it at prom u can wear healz + it lokz gd on small galz + at de end of de day fik bout it would u b rather b really tall or small i would b small, boyz lik galz dat r smaller den dem anywayz soooo dw bout bing small coz yr not alone
A
female
reader, anonymous, writes (11 March 2006): i know how u feel about the height thing too! im 15 and i havent measured myself but i no im not 5ft but im guessing around 4ft 11! even my 12 yr old male cousin is taller than me and im the shortest in my year. i'm about the same height and weight as my 8 yr old cousin lol which is about 6 stones but i'm not really that skinny. I know im not gonna grow that much coz my family are midgets anyway lol but i still wanna grow, i mean im 15 and i look like an 8 year old! can someone please help me?!!!
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reader, megz x-x +, writes (18 September 2005):
 hey im kind of feeling your pain with the hieght thing....
except mine in reverse lol. im 15 and 5"11 and a half!
I envy you soo much! use your height! Fashion you clothes so that you can wear high heels (especialy with jeans)
Stand with you back tall and whe you walk out tomrow smile at at least one person....that what someone told me to do.
Blokes prefer smaller girls.....ones they can protect and tower over lol. So stand tall sweetie and remeber ...no one can make you feel insecure without your permission!
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reader, anonymous, writes (9 September 2005): dont worry, if you dont grow anymore im sure you have many beautiful features. height is not everything and if you are worried about looking mature this will come in good time!
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A
female
reader, S +, writes (7 September 2005):
When I was in the fourth grade I towered over everyone in my new class (including the boys). So when I arrived at my brand new school located in a tiny town, the first person who spoke to me asked "Are you the teacher?" That entire year I felt horriblly insecure about my height due to my own personal criticisms as well as the comments made by the other children, and always felt uncomfortable standing next to someone who was shorter than me. Even when I was your age I wasn't happy with my height! I couldn't wear sexy high heels to a dance in fear that I would look like an amazon. But as you get older you'll come to appreciate what you've been blessed with. I would've given anything to be short at 15, but people have a tendency to want what they can't have don't they. But the bottom line is please don't beat yourself up about it!! Just try to think of all of the advantages like you can wear some sexy black stilleto's without knowing today's weather forecast (Ha Ha)and you have plenty of time to grow a few inches so don't sweat it. And in the meantime keep your chin up and sit up straight (it makes you appear to be taller). In a few years you'll look back and think my height was nothing to be insecure about!
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reader, anonymous, writes (6 September 2005): Talk to your doctor. He can consult charts that estimate your eventual height based on birth weight, length or height at birth, etc. However, remember these are only estimates. You physical health, diet, illnesses, broken bones, as well as genes will determine how tall you are eventually. You can expect to grow an inch or two each year for the next three years, and still be growing when you are 21 or so. Get lots of calcium, and vitamins, and get enough rest at night. By the way, over the course of a day, we all " shrink" in height about one inch. This is because the soft discs between the vertebrae of our spines grow smaller from the effects of gravity compressing our spine as we stand, walk, and move around during the day. You regain that height during the night, when you sleep, giving your back a break! During your lifetime, assuming you live past 75,you will lose more than an inch in height, again because as you age, those discs will harden, and get smaller in size. These are the arthritic problems old people have with their backs. Not much you can do yet to change that, but science is finding answer every day. By the time you get that old, they may have something to help you avoid these problems. Since you are taller in the morning than at night, make sure you take your height readings in the morning! There are several different anthropological formula that pathologists use to estimate height, based on the length of leg and arm bones. Yours are not yet fully developed. Your feet should be at their full length, now, however, so you can use this linear equation to estimate you adult height: multiply your foot length, measured in inches, by 3.44, and add 32.364 to that sum to get your estimated height. This is accurate for 2/3 of males within plus or minus 2.5 inches, and 99% of men plus or minus 5 inches. That covers a lot of territory, but science cannot be more exact since there are so many factors that affect your ultimate height that can occur between birth and adulthood. ( there is a separate formula for estimating the height of women.) I co-authored a study published in 1991 in the Journal of Forensic Sciences on this correlation between stature and footlength.
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reader, kt  +, writes (6 September 2005):
 hi, im 15 and im really short too! i have been all my life even my little sister (two years younger) towers above me. i dont eat dairy though and i think that that is the key to growing. also your too young to be thinking that you will never grow, fact is girls mature and grow faster and younger than boys, thats why they tend to be taller at this age, but you will soon catch up.
the key signs to look out for is getting hungy more and feeling tired more this is when your body starts to grow.
and dont worrie people that are shorter when they are youger tend to be taller in later years than everyone else, thats what keeps me happy, lol
so stop worrieing and try to enjoy your teenages years they are the best ones!!
kt .
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female
reader, Bev Conolly  +, writes (6 September 2005):
 I've got good news for you... Fifteen is wwwwaaaayyyy too early to worry about your final height. Most boys do the majority of their growing in height between 15-17, and many men don't "fill out" with muscle mass until they're in their 20s.
It's nothing that you have to worry about, particularly because you've already said that you've recently had a growth spurt, which means that you don't have pituitary (growth hormone) problems. If you've started getting taller, then you're fine. You just need to be a bit patient.
Anyone who's been there (that is, all of us) knows that the teenage years are an absolute minefield. You're either not manly enough, too manly, too short, too tall, not hairy enough, disgustingly hairy, too fat, too thin, or you're worried that everybody is cool, except you. But you'll find that in a year or two all this will be behind you; you probably won't even think about it, so just remind yourself that your biological timetable isn't the same as your mates'... but that's still OK. When you're all 25 and all the same height, it's not going to be an issue, really!
At age 15, you're only *starting* to hit adolescence. And once that gets going, boys usually shoot up and fill out fast and start looking like men, so it's from now FORWARD that really counts.
The best way to approach your worries are to do everything that you can to live a healthy life, so that your body has the correct nutrients to build the new, taller You. So eat well, and exercise, just like the public-service announcements on TV suggest, and get enough sleep that you feel rested. If 5-7 hours is enough, and you don't have trouble waking, then you're fine. If you have to be dragged out of bed in the mornings, though, then try to get a few more hours sleep by hitting the hay earlier. That's a no brainer.
You can't "force" yourself to grow, so don't believe anyone who has a sure-fire, money-back-guaranteed way to do it. It's like bald guys who want to grow hair. At this time, it can't be done, so don't get sucked in to any scams.
You're very, very unlikely to remain your 15-year-old height forever. If you're still worried, ask your folks if you can go to the doctor and get a complete physical. The doc will do blood tests and urine tests and other screening to make sure that you don't have any health problems that are affecting your height. Once those results show that you're normal, it will help put your mind at ease.
As I said, it's too soon to worry. Just be patient with yourself.
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