Dwarfism: Being small in an average-height world

By Megan M

Having dwarfism in a world filled with average height people In a BBC1 documentary, Ellie Simmonds talks to many people who have dwarfism. She also talks about a new drug that's being tested which can help with growth. Those in the dwarf community expressed many opinions about this drug. They feared that having dwarfism is a bad thing and people just don’t know what dwarfism is.

Watching this documentary made me understand more about dwarfism and it answers some of the questions I always had growing up. As this condition runs in my family's bloodline, two of my uncles had Achondroplasia. People with this type of dwarfism tend to have short arms and legs, and the torso is of normal length. The males have an average height of 4ft 4in and the females about 4ft. But it never seemed to bother them, so why should it bother others? I personally never saw them as dwarfs, it was more along the lines of them being unique.

As I was growing up, they’d walk around, sometimes with a wooden stick. They’d drive their cars with no issues as they moved the seat and figured out a way to touch the pedals. They had a few tricks like Ellie had shown in her documentary. My uncles would talk about the mischievous things they did when they were younger, but mostly bring up that one was just a little bit taller than the other. They laughed and joked like any other average height person, but like others, they have to deal with people pointing and laughing at them because their different.

Even though I do not have dwarfism, I dislike when others use hurtful words like 'tiny', 'midget', or sound disgusted by the concept of dwarfism. I get angry and try to explain to those people that it's not right to joke about something, especially if you don’t understand the conditions that person might have. Instead of judging people based on their differences, such as race, ethnicity, religion, quirks, disabilities, or conditions, we should raise our hands and admit that we do not understand. We did in school right? Whenever you didn’t understand something you’d raise your hand and ask for help. So why not in the real world?

Dwarfism shouldn’t be considered a bad thing to have. There are so many people in the world that have this condition and have amazing lives. For example, Ellie Simmonds OBE, She’s a former Paralympian. At the age of 13, she joined GB's Paralympic team where she won many medals.

According to littlepeopleuk.org, it mentions that ‘there are around 7000 people with Dwarfism in the UK.’ With thousands of people having dwarfism, people who don’t understand should do some research or simply ask. Don’t point and laugh because they're just people like any other average height person. There is so much to do with dwarfism and if you want to learn more check out little people uk and Ellie Simmonds: A world without Dwarfism? Documentary on BBC1.