While attending a fundraiser years ago, I was approached by a woman who said, “I read your column every week.” What came next was not criticism, nor adoring accolades, but rather this: “I thought you’d be taller.”

An uncomfortable silence ensued. She looked at me with contempt as we stared each other down like two desperados in a cheap spaghetti western. Finally, I responded with a shrill apology, attempting to add levity to an awkward situation. “Sorry to disappoint! I thought I’d be taller too, but I just quit growing.”

Yes, I am five-foot-nuthin’ and I don’t see a problem with that. Though when I was younger, it bothered me. I was constantly wearing platform shoes and punishing high heels just to appear taller.

I can recall only one time that I’d wished I was tall—on a bus loaded with German tourists in Belgium. The bus doors opened with a swoosh, as a sea swell of lanky hairy legs wearing socks and sandals mowed me down. I was merely a speed bump to wherever they were headed, and they never looked back.

I even lied on my driver’s license. Turns out, even when standing in front of a DMV employee, they don’t question your physical description. I generously gave myself an additional 3 inches in height, and once, dangerously threw caution to the wind, falsifying my height with an extra 3 ½ inch nudge.

Height wasn’t the only fabrication on the ol’ DL. Why not go for broke and fudge on my weight as well? One year, I knew I’d pushed the DMV clerk to unreasonable limits as she gave my paperwork a cursory look.

“Says here you’re 5’9” and 105 pounds? Here you go Cindy Crawford,” she snapped, pushing the paperwork back across the counter. “Get back in line. That’s a do-over.”

At times, being small in stature can be dangerous. We get pushed around plenty—both physically and metaphorically. Perhaps fighting our way through a world of tall people is what gives us extra grit and determination, and I’m okay with that.

Sadly, we are constantly sizing one another up, neatly categorizing others into whatever height and shape is deemed normal. But I warn you. Do not underestimate us petite gals. We can be a force to be reckoned with. And as William Shakespeare so astutely wrote in a Midsummer Night’s Dream, “Though she be but little, she is fierce!”