How fast did you grow to get stretch marks on your trunk? (I’m assuming you are male?) I’m a 5’7" woman who was within about 2 inches of my current height by the time I was 12 years old, and I was very self-conscious of the stretch marks on my own thighs until I realized that a lot of other girls had them too.
I grew about 6 inches between ages 10 1/2 and 11 1/2, and then that was pretty much it for me.
My brother had Osgood-Schlatter disease as a teenager, and one of his kids did too.
If he’s slumping because of shyness, I’d also explain that people who slump don’t get less attention, just less respect. I’ve mostly seen this in girls (girls: trying to look shorter won’t stop older men from making passes: you’ll just get passes from sleazier men), but boys do it too (boys: trying to look shorter won’t stop guys calling you out: you’ll just get called out by loosers).
One word - crowds.
I don’t remember exactly, but I’m pretty sure I grew at least 4 inches or so after high school. I ended up at 6’8". And yes, that is freakishly, painintheassishly tall. But still probably better than being short.
6’4” here. I love being taller than average.
My problems with it are: light switches, countertops, showerheads and occassionally doorknobs are too low. Shoes can be hard to find (14EEE) and sometimes pants and shirts are not right for my frame.
Beds are too short. I spent decades of my adult life unable to sleep without my feet hanging off the bed, my head jammed into the headboard, etc. I finally had a large enough bedroom when I bought my house that I now sleep very comfortably on a Cal King.
I was always the tallest kid in my class growing up and didn’t really have a growth spurt, just continuous growth. Stopped when I was 19 or so, IIRC. I was a prodigous sleeper and eater as a teen.
The good parts include being able to see in crowds and being able to reach things.
What ^ Snowborder_Bo says. I am (was) 6-4". I’ve shrunk a bit due to aging.
My real growth spurt happened when I was between 7 and 9. To the point that it HURT. My legs hurt quite a bit. My folks where concerned about polio.
Clothes where hard to find when I was a teen and in my 20’s. But that’s not really an issue anymore.
The advantages out weigh any disadvantages. I have a best friend that is 6’6" and another that was 5’7" the three of us hung out a lot together in our high school years up through our 30’s. The advantages of height where clear. You could reach things, in all directions others could not. Generally stronger. And, well when you are half a foot taller than other people, you don’t generally get as much shit from bully’s and the like. This is not always true though.
My Wife is 5’1". It just becomes natural that you are the person to get things off the top shelf. In a crowd, she can usually always find me, while it’s hard for me to find her.
Just some general observations -
A funny anecdote. My Wife and I where at an amusement park looking UP at a new ride we wanted to try. I rested my chin on top of (what I thought was) her head and placed my hands on her shoulders as I do sometimes. She was right in front of me (a few seconds ago) Then I notice a guy looking at me with some sort of combination of fear and confusion. Then I see my Wife looking at me rather oddly. I smile “Hi Honey” Uh Oh. Oops. Sorry.
It’s still sort of unsettling to run into people that are taller than me. It just feels… odd. It’s only because it’s a bit rare. I wonder if shorter people have the same experience when running into someone shorter. As I said my Wife is 5’1". We just hired a lawyer to re-do our wills. The woman was maybe 4’5"s tall.
My wife calls me her Bumble (Rudolph reference) when she needs something off a high shelf.
At only 6’3", it is unusual to find a basement in which I can walk everywhere w/o ducking. And I often have to be careful not to be too energetic going down stairs, as I’ve banged my share of overhangs.
Actually, I assume anyone over 6’ is used to refexibly ducking around light fixtures, ductwork, garage door openers, and the like. At 6’7"-8", I’d imagine the hazards to be far more common.
Obligatory MP link. FF to approx 3:00.
My ex-husband is 5’3". I invited him to a work happy hour once that included a man shorter than him, and it was probably the first thing he commented on: “Wow, there’s a guy here who’s shorter than me! That doesn’t happen every day!”
Many years ago I dated a guy who was a little over 6’6". His mom was 5’7", dad was 6’4".
He was average height until age 12, when he grew 6" in a year. Then it became slow but steady until he hit age 18. He did say that one year was miserable, and I’m sure it didn’t help he was very thin. It was somewhat interesting to see his school picture progressions - going from the middle to the center back of all pictures.
The main issues he had were finding clothes (30x38 pants and fitted shirts were impossible) and vehicles. He had always wanted a sports car, but test drives were a practice in human origami. It was his nature to duck at any door opening.
He has an older brother who topped out at 6’2" and a younger brother who topped out at 5’7". Genetics are weird.
I can attest to this since I was both the shortest, and smallest boy in school, and then nearly the tallest, all within about one year.
When I was 16 years old, I was 5’2" and 85 lbs (have my first drivers license that documents this). Not only was I the smallest boy in high school, but nearly the smallest student in high school. I looked like a grade schooler. I started growing when I turned 17 and by the time I graduated, I was about 6’2". By the time I turned 19, I was 6’3" and 130 lbs.
I didn’t have growing pains. However, I have now developed knee issues due to Achilles tendons that didn’t keep up with my growth - the ortho surgeons say if they could go back, they would’ve lengthened them then. I also have had ankle issues my entire life. I have extremely narrow feet (B width) which makes proper fitting shoes impossible to find. I don’t have large feet for my height, only 11, but they are still too long to find narrow shoes in womens sizing.
Snowboarder_Bo’s post 25 is pretty accurate for me, except for always being tall and having wide feet. Also, my pant size was 29X36 when I first got to 6’3". I had to special order 501s and that was the only pant I could find.
BTW, I don’t think I have ever in my life felt tall. I grew up as a small, short person and was bullied and made fun of so much that I still see myself as short and small. I’m still thin and tried my hardest to bulk up when I was younger without success. I think I was eating over 4000 calories per day while I was really hitting the weights. I got stronger, but not really bigger. Now that I’m over 50, I have no hope (I am fit and exercise quite a bit).
I know someone who had to have this done, but he is a very special case. He was a kid in my synagogue, so everyone kinda knew the story, then when I started teaching religious school, I had his younger brother in class, who told everyone all the details of the surgery. He (the older brother) had had leukemia, and the chemo arrested his growth, so whatever height he was when he started treatment in the sixth grade, he still was as a high school sophomore, when he was officially declared cancer-free, and “cured,” FWIW. At that point, he was prescribed HGH-- Human Growth Hormone (it’s artificial now, but works the same).
He suddenly started growing at an alarming rate, as his body tried to catch up to the height it “wanted” to be at that age. Now he’s in his early 30s, still cancer-free, and about 5’10. He’s also a father, which means he got very lucky-- chemo usually makes men sterile, but he wasn’t far enough along in puberty to have his fertility affected.
My son doesn’t “get” how big he is either, though. Even though he’s always been very big for his age, he’s still been a child. It’s only been in the last year that he’s started being bigger than his teachers (he’s been taller than me for a while, but I don’t think he sees himself that way).
He’s always putting things where I can’t reach them, and when I ask him not to do that, he looks very surprised, and I can see that it never occurred to him I couldn’t reach it.
He’s going to be big enough to be intimidating, if he wants to be, but he has no idea about that yet. His shoulders are so broad, he almost has to go through doorways sideways.
He still has a little boy face, though. His father kind of does too.
I have a nephew like that. I think he is 6’7" and well over 200 (muscular, not fat - yet). He was always the biggest kid in class. He’s a lumbering sweetheart though. Now that I’m older, I’m 6’3" and 175lbs (should be 165 if I rode my bike a bit more). Nothing intimidating about me. 
Not that I want to be.
This is a potential issue; lemme explain what I experienced.
At one point in my life, mid-20s, I moved to a new city. 4 or 5 months later, I had a minor conflict at work with my co-workers. When discussing this with a close family member, I was informed that I didn’t understand how others saw me. I was told that I am ENORMOUS compared to most people and that, combined with my deep, mellifluous voice and staggering self-confidence, I was often shockingly intimidating, however inadvertently. 
I mean, I knew I was big. I knew I had a strong personality. I knew I could be heard over a rock concert crowd when I needed… but I really didn’t fully appreciate how others saw me because I had/have no way to experience things from their perspective.
So I doubled down on previous efforts to smile more (well, to not have BRF as much, anyway), to modulate my tone of voice more carefully, etc. It helps. There’s no getting around the initial reaction maybe, but an even tone and a pleasant expression can soothe that quickly.
I had a sales textbook with an anecdote about an ex-pro footballer who always stumbled when he came into a new clients office - and explained that his knee injury made it difficult to walk. So that his clients wouldn’t be intimidated.
I always sit low, and my friends comment on how quiet and gentle my voice is. But that’s probably mostly because I’m a migrant, and the ‘loud, forceful American’ is a very negative stereotype here. If I lived somewhere else, I’d probably enjoy being the loud big guy. I mean, I put up with the short beds and the low shelves, why not enjoy being what I am?
True.
I have an old friend who is simply enormous. He’s 6’6" and he must weigh at least 275, without an ounce of fat on him. He is really, really strong. Not a workout nut or anything, but he’s worked very physical jobs his whole life.
When we were all younger, for decades (like from 20 to 40) people would start shit with him in bars all the time.
Basically, if someone started a fight with him, and won, he was a hero. If he lost, no shame in it because of the sheer size of his opponent.
Now that he and I are 60, and not hanging out in bars, or at least not bars full of assholes, much these days, this doesn’t happen any more. But I remember it all too well.
Yes Saintly_Loser.
Back in Junior High school, some kid much smaller than me started picking on me. I had no idea who this kid was or why he was doing it. Had no classes with him or anything. He wanted to fight. It was very confusing, and it scared me.
I’m not a fighter, and wouldn’t do it. I think he wanted to fight me, one of the biggest kids in school. Like you said, if he won it would have been amazing. If he lost, than I would look like the bully.
I don’t know what was wrong with him. But did find out later that he got kicked out for having a .45 in his locker. I’m glad I did not rise to the bait.
Yeah - I’ve had that as well. I am a lawyer, and tend to choose my words precisely, focussing on the word choice rather than the tone of delivery. I’ve often thought I was just communicating innocuously but directly and clearly with someone - possibly during a discussion or even a disagreement, to hear after that I was being intimidating. Often from women.
I imagine it is SOMETIMES the case that I should be more aware of my entire presentation, but I also suspect that at least occasionally the person calling intimidation is passive-aggressively trying to excuse their own wrong-doing. I’ve had incidents where someone did something clearly wrong (by the standards of where the action occurred) - and they know or should have known that they were wrong. My response was essentially, “Cut it out.” And the other person chooses to shift the focus from their wrong-doing which precipitated my response - to the appropriateness of my response.
Our youngest can reach things the rest of us can’t, which comes in handy when we need something on those top shelves at Whole Food. I asked him recently how tall his girl friend is; I’d noticed that he can rest his chin on the top of her head. Turns out she’s around 5’7". He does have kind of a young looking face.