I've spent the majority of my dating life with tall guys. One guy was so tall I had to stand on my tip-toes to kiss him. I liked having taller boyfriends—I just thought that was how it was supposed to be.

And then I met Stephen (not his real name). He was hilarious, outgoing, cute, and a good head shorter than me.

I’ll admit it: I never really saw myself dating a short guy (for reasons I’m still not sure of), but we had so much fun together that it really didn’t matter.

While Stephen and I never discussed his height (hello awkward), I found myself working hard to overcompensate for his diminutive stature. Since my only going-out shoes were heels, I immediately went shopping for flats. I bent my knees when we took photos together, and avoided slow dancing—a situation where I’d definitely tower over him.

I went out of my way to do everything I could to keep him from feeling awkward about our height difference.

Except…he didn’t care. At 5’5’’, Stephen knew he was short, but he really didn’t give a crap about it. His height didn’t define him—it was just a feature, like his shoe size.

But it mattered to other people. While they’d never say anything to Stephen’s face, friends and even acquaintances would ask me things like, “are you cool with the fact that he’s shorter than you?” One friend of a friend even said (after a few glasses of wine), “Good for you! I could never date a guy that short.” ....What in the hell?

Most people were genuinely curious, but all of the attention on Stephen’s size, and not his other attributes, bothered me.

In the end, things didn’t work out between us—but it had nothing to do with his height. And a few years later, I dated another short guy and discovered the same thing: While the rest of the world was hung up on height, it didn’t matter to him.

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And damn, that’s hot.

Short guys get a bad rap, but most of them are sexier than their vertically-gifted peers. Why? They’ve spent years of their lives being teased and judged because of their height—and they almost always come out on the other side. In my experience, they tend to be sexier, more confident, and less self-conscious than most other guys.

Case in point: Bruno Mars (5’5”), Aziz Ansari (5’6”), Usher (5’7’’), Josh Hutcherson (5’6”), Jon Stewart (5’6”)…need I go on?

Research has shown short guys make better partners, too. A study conducted by two NYU sociologists found that men who are 5’7” or shorter are 32 percent less likely to divorce than taller dudes. They also do more housework than tall and average-height guys and are more likely to bring home more money, the study found.

The difference also extends to the bedroom: A recent study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine found that short guys have more sex than taller men.

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So you don’t date short guys because … ?

Really, the problem isn’t short guys—it’s us. We’re so hung up on whether a man has a few inches to spare that we tend to miss one important fact: This is a person we’re talking about, and we’re judging them on their height, of all reasons. We might as well take a pass on a potentially great guy because his leg hair curls the wrong way.

You might think shorties are not hot, but trust me, you’re seriously missing out if you haven’t been with one at some point in your life.

According to my Facebook stalking, Stephen has dated plenty of other women who were taller than him since we broke up.

And why wouldn’t he? He’s f*cking hot.

Korin Miller Korin Miller is a freelance writer specializing in general wellness, sexual health and relationships, and lifestyle trends, with work appearing in Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Self, Glamour, and more.

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