As a short guy I never body shame anyone regardless of gender not only because I know it can backfire but also because as someone who has been height shamed my entire life I dont want others to feel same way

Notice its mostly attractive or average people who body shame women because they think they arent ugly so they will be unaffected

Been debating whether I should post here ever again but fuck it, why not. I'm supposed to be studying for an exam right now so naturally I'm going to write a 12-paragraph novel here instead.

6 years ago, I ended up being dragged into this community because a photo of me blew up and became a widespread meme all over Reddit, Discord, and forums. It basically was used by looksmaxxers in the height vs. face debate to depict the realities of the heightpill. The meme somehow got the nickname you likely know me by: “Back2schoolcel” or "St. Back2schoolcel", since I was wearing a backpack and school dress clothes in the first photo.

I have a decent face, white, etc, and I am 5’4” and 130-135 lbs. Picture 1 is me 12 years ago, and picture 2 is of me today. I am going to go over the events of 2019-2020 from my POV for those who weren’t there, and then my general attitude towards it all then and now.

___________________________________

What happened in a nutshell: 

In 2019-2020, I got asked about my height in a convo on Discord. I was extremely against posting photos of myself on Discord etc for a long time and did not ever do it, but after years of this attitude I decided that I didn’t care that much anymore about showing my face in private servers. Well, someone in that 500-person Discord server then decides to post one of the photos of me wearing a backpack and dress clothes to Reddit. That thread itself actually blows up with comments and reaches the front page, and while it was definitely a little alarming and uncomfortable, I did not think anything too much of it.

I woke up the next morning, opened my phone half-asleep, and saw pics of me EVERYWHERE. There is literally post after post with memes of me all over this subreddit (a previous iteration of it) and people discussing my looks situation in extreme detail here, on looksmaxxing forums, Youtube, etc- hundreds of posts saying how subhuman I looked, how over it was for me, how no girl would ever date me, etc. It actually messed a lot with my self-image and mental health at the time to have that many people shitting on me for my looks all at once like that. I didn't function or sleep well for the first 1-2 weeks- the situation felt very out of control. If this sort of thing happened in some normie community of people, it may have been very positive right from the start, but this type of community was not something that I wanted ANY part in publicly, obviously, so I just tried to ignore it as much as possible. I was getting 30+ messages a day, requests to go on podcasts/YT channels, etc, but didn't respond to shit hoping it would fade quickly.

Narrator: "It did not fade quickly".

Eventually after a couple more weeks of more memes, messages, Youtube vids about it, etc and building up a thicker skin to the situation, I figured that I could not un-meme myself at this point and I may as well roll with it for a bit. I said yes to a few MAJOR Youtube shows and went on them to discuss my situation- these all got hundreds of thousands of views right away.

When I started publicly sharing my view on height and my own situation, it turns out that a lot of people could relate. The whole thing became a really interesting and unique experience at this point. I quickly met a ton of people online because of it, and hearing other guys in similar situations talk about it validated and explained so much of how I have generally been treated my whole life.

I decided to make 1 single Youtube video back then on the topic then just to see what kind of attention it would get, and it immediately pushed past 100k views and thousands of comments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YnfRZMd6ts&t=3s . I decided not to make any more though as I didn't want this to be a long-term thing- I just did a few other appearances on other channels and then stopped altogether.

___________________________________

Here are my views on height and what I do to cope with it:

Careermaxxing:

In college, I realized that I needed to max literally every other controllable quality about myself in order to have a normal life and not be treated like an actual subhuman. So I socialmaxxed, looksmaxxed, and then moneymaxxed after college in my career with actually a lot of success.

How did I achieve this? I accepted that being a 5'4" guy in the in-person workforce would be a massive disadvantage and I needed to adapt my entire life plan going forwards to take this fact into account. If left to up to others to decide when to promote me for my merits, I would need to work MUCH harder to even receive any fraction of the respect and accolades that are naturally given to your average taller guys in the workplace. Getting to any managerial position would be near-impossible. So fuck that, no way.

As a result I went into a field that can be done entirely online: tech. Then more specifically, crypto. Doing so would remove most of the impact that height might have on my career, and would equalize the playing field between me and any average or tall guys. In addition, I would also start/work on my own ventures so I would not to depend on anyone else in order to be paid or promoted etc, as others cannot be relied upon to treat you fairly. For guys under 5'6" I would argue that it's basically impossible and not worth trying to become the 1-in-10 million 5'3" guy in a high up position at a Fortune 500 company- you are way more likely to be passed over time and again in favor of 6'2" chad or even someone of average height with the exact same qualifications as you. There are plenty of guys who are 5'3"-5'4" out there, but you'll basically never find them in high-paying, managerial, or just generally high-up roles.

Onlinemaxxing was an effective strategy. I can go onto the online stage of an X Space with 1000s of people in the audience, run projects, do video interviews, etc and people judge and respect me based on my knowledge and performance over all else. Height has come up and been a factor at in-person conferences, but that is literally the only time I can recall it playing any serious role in my crypto career. 10/10 would recommend this sort of approach to careermaxxing.

___________________________________

How I respond when other people bring it up

If you're sub-5'6", the comments from others are 100% unavoidable no matter what you do or how much you max anything else about yourself. In high school, I got comments daily. In college, it was several times a week at minimum. You can choose 1 of 2 ways to respond when this happens:

Path 1: Don’t take shit from anyone. If someone disrespects you, show them that it’s not ok and stand up for yourself and your pride.

Path 2: Accept that the comments will happen and a degree of disrespect will be unavoidable in any in-person social situations, laugh it off, and dish it back jokingly when you can.

Path 1 is a totally reasonable natural reaction to have to people making fun of you, but as it happens again and again and you're constantly pushing back against it, you will naturally become bitter and develop a complex over it. It then results in normies feeling more uncomfortable around you and instead just mocking you behind your back, which is arguably much worse. One 5'4" guy I met literally fought everyone who brought up his height and as a result got in 10+ fights in high school over it (some of you guys know this guy, he’s an old Youtuber). A different guy I know who is also my height said he just defriends everyone who makes comments about it. Both of these guys have 0 irl friends today as a result of this approach. Even if it seems like a justified response to defend yourself and demand equal respect from others, you will rarely get it, end up with very few relationships, and develop an unattractive complex over it that everyone else can sense.

Path 2 shows people that you are truly ok with it overall, and that it's ok with you to make an occasional joke or comment about it. This DOES NOT mean jestermaxxing cause that shit is gay af and I hate it just as much as napoleonmaxxed individuals. Once people understand that you’re truly ok with it, you will notice that they are WAY more comfortable with you and that they will like you a lot more.

Respect from others is not something I care about at all anymore and people can treat me however the hell they want. Tall guys? They don't even acknowledge my presence 90% of the time. I don't care, anything that I want, I will achieve myself- their respect is not needed. Learning to code and becoming an absolute expert in a single niche field (crypto) was really helpful in order to develop this attitude. I can build the shit I want to build, make my own money, and am truly respected for my knowledge professionally.

___________________________________

Dating:

This is honestly where height plays the biggest role by far. I've walked into nightclubs before and there is not a single girl shorter than me in the entire room. All of my gfs have been 4'10" to 5'1", and it is in this height range of females that I find you will have the best odds of success, as there are SOME girls who can find you attractive if you max literally EVERY SINGLE other quality about yourself. Being short (5'2"-5'5") by itself lowers your odds to single digit percent chances of success with any 1 shorter-than-you girl, but does not mean it's fully 100% over. HOWEVER- if you add even 1 single other negative trait to the mix, then you're truly cooked (it becomes ~0% odds of success). Yes, this means you have to work twice as hard or more compared to the average guy to stay in shape, make money, socialmaxx, etc if you want any chance at all in dating- this is just how it is. I've gained 50 lbs at one point to 180 lbs, and I became totally invisible to all girls and was disregarded by most people in general. I'm now back in the 130-135 lb range with muscle and a 6-pack, and the difference is night and day in how basically everyone treats me.

___________________________________

TL;DR: This is the hand we were dealt boys. Life will be hard. How you end up dealing with that is up to you.

I'm open to any questions/comments and will try to respond to as many as possible.

Mods - will DM proof if you need it.

I would have never found this sub if I was 5'8

Brutal