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Tricia Spiegel, a research psychologist, just published a book called “Awesome Advantages of Being a Tall Girl”. She decided to write the book after realizing that tall teenage girls are often unaware of the extraordinary advantages of being tall and can actually even be insecure about their height. So she wrote this book in order to bring awareness to these advantages while providing advice for dealing with the challenges, all in order to improve the self-esteem of tall teenage girls for their lifelong betterment. The book is primarily intended to be read by tall teenage girls but also anyone who is close with a tall teenage girl, such as a parent.
Tricia sent me a copy given I run this website, Tall.Life. I just finished reading it. As an adult male, I’m not the primary target audience. However, as someone extremely tall who was once young, I can definitely relate to some of what Tricia has written. Below are my thoughts.
Before I started the book, I took a look at Tricia’s background. She has a PhD in psychology with a focus in child development. She carried out a carrier as a professor at various reputable institutions with numerous academic publications to her name. Given this, I kind of expected her book to lean towards being academic. However, she has masterfully written for her target audience. It is relatively short and entirely in laymen’s terms, interspersed with lots of pictures of potential role models. Yet the content is backed by thorough research and her words all ring true. Tricia’s relevant expertise is the foundation that allows this book to stand out.
What I like most about this book is its unwavering positivity. She starts by analogizing tall women with such majestic entities as sequoias, mountains, and waterfalls, setting the tone for the book. This tone is continued throughout as she points out all the societal advantages and hammering home the point that, while tall teenage girls may struggle with their height, by the time they reach adulthood they are grateful for it, and so they might as well begin to feel that way early on. And as far as the challenges, like all the height related comments, Tricia is able to put a positive spin on them as she provides helpful suggestions. Another aspect of the book that I liked was all the interviews. Tricia interviewed dozens of tall girls and women with all sorts of questions. This solidifies her points and will help her young audience relate to the content. It would be very difficult to not come away from this book with a highly optimistic view of tall stature in young women.
Perhaps if there was anything critical I was to say about the book, it would be that some of the content is commonsense. But that is to someone who has dealt with tall stature for a couple decades. If I recall back to my adolescent years, I was woefully ignorant of what it meant to be tall and underplayed the little I did know. The fact is that being extremely tall has a massive impact on all aspects of our lives. So Tricia’s coverage of even the obvious is warranted, as she cements advice to live by.
If I had a tall teenage daughter, I would consider this book an essential read for both of us.