With a bracing mix of fresh research, incisive reportage, and personal candor, Size Matters uncovers the causes and effects of societyʼs bias against shortness and reveals how short people can and do thrive in spite of this insidious bigotry. Drawing on his own childhood experience (he was shorter than 99 percent of boys his age) and extensive investigation and interviews, Stephen Hall explores the fraught phenomenon of bullying and charts its lifelong consequences. He seeks out the factors determining that one personʼs small stature will lead to low status while another short person develops resilience that will enrich his later life. Hall pinpoints the forces that create and cash in on our anxieties about size, from superhero action figures to drug companies that sell a hormone that increases childrenʼs height (at a cost of up to 40,000 dollars a year). He visits families agonizing over whether to make that huge investment. He hangs out with teenagers who will do whatever it takes to grow taller, and he uncovers the sources of the intense pressure they feel. He even tracks down the kid he once bullied in grammar school, who was, of course, the only one shorter than he. Along the way, Hall builds a persuasive case against societal attitudes that make size (or any difference) matter and argues forcefully for the advantages of being short. Size Matters will raise the consciousness-and the spirits-of any short male and anyone who cares about him.
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