This was the unfortunate truth about height in professional modeling. When I began breaking into the modeling industry, I was told, “you need to be 5’8 or taller to be a model.”
I have heard thousands of women say they want to be models, but they were under 5’6″ tall. Significantly short of the industry model standard. Unless, you’re 5’6″ Kate Moss a friend of the agency and you’re taken on as a pet project, forget about it!
Well, that was then, today is a new day!
To bring on change for petite women, I decided to become part of the solution for petite women that want better fashion options and those who want to be a model. Consequently, I’ve produced hundreds of events with petite models.
The hypocrisy is that clothing designers feel their clothes look better when draped on a tall woman’s frame, as they are considered clothing hangers. Reality is designers should be designing clothing that looks great on a petite frame since the average size female in the US at 5’3″. Clothing should be designed with petite fit models and not models that are 5’8″ plus. Soon you will be able to get our exclusive petite clothing capsule collections!
Interesting statistic: Women 5’9″ tall and over only represent 3% of US females, translation designer missed there mark!
Another insult perpetrated on petite models is being treated like car parts! The idea that petite models should be relegated to “body part modeling,” for hands, feet, butts because we’re not good enough as the whole model is wrong. Oh, but it’s not surprising we can do porn and swimsuit modeling and rock it, lol!
Good news, according to many men’s magazines and a few scientific studies about what men prefer is petite women, not tall women.
Look, hopeful petite models, of course, it’s not fair, and it’s downright discrimination by the old style magazines, designers, retailers, advertising agencies and the modeling agencies. This is the big business of fashion and public relations so we need to band to together in a concerted effort to show them this is what the petite womens marketplace wants! We can change the fashion industry standards by cementing our petite market niche.
The millions of petite women in the world supporting our ” Bella Petite Fashion initiative.” Come to join our movement, and together change happens!
More good news! Bella Petite Magazine produces the only international model search in the world. Today, we have dozens of cover girls and hundreds of editorial models within our pages! Change is underway, thanks to our loyal readers and petite models!
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PARTICIPATE IN THE PETITE FASHION MOVEMENT! COPY AND PASTE UP THIS FABULOUS GRAPHIC INTO YOUR FACEBOOK TIMELINE COVER HEADER AND PROMOTE IT ON YOUR WEBPAGES.
Join Bella Petite today and be part of the petite fashion and model movement. Bella Petite Magazine is Fashion, Entertainment, and LifeStyle for Women 5’6″ Tall & under. “Petite is fit, curvy and plus-sized. Free to join us!
BELLA PETITE MAGAZINE Enter the Bella Petite Model Search. WIN a photo shoot in California, an editorial fashion spread and tearsheets for your portfolio and model promotions! Enter the ONLY model search in the world for petite women 5’6″ tall and under!
Get your free online issue of Bella Petite today to see what all the buzz is about! Print editions are available for order at bit.ly/bellapetitemag
This article demonstrates how difficult it is to become a petite model. I look forward to becoming a petite member to help further our cause. I’m excited to see the support out there for the petite fashion industry. Bellapetite will be my source for petite information and news.
I am so excited about petite models being accepted in the fashion business. I want to be a model. How do I become one its my dream in life.
If you are a petite model the usual methods of how to become a model don't apply. Keep in mind most agencies won't interview women under 5'9" to be a model. The typical way to get in the biz, is obtain a listing of agencies, find out who is accepting new talent, get the open call times for interviews and or send in a head & body shot with your vital stats. Often models are discovered by scouts in the mall, on the streets, from a model search or talent show. Remember being a model is only lucrative for a handful of ladies, so have a fall back plan for a real career in life.
Take heart change is coming in the near future for petite models we will be producing model searches for BellaPetite. Get on our email list in order to stay updated for new events.
Where can I sign up to be little model want to do it soo bad. I don’t know what to do. Please make it happen for the little ones
Thanks Jenny! We are going to bring the fashion industry back to petite women. Keep checking in… we'll have a lot more to say about petite modeling!
Good stuff. I always knew nobody gets that petite models have no representation. We need more clothes too.
I really want to learn more about how to become a model. You are so right. We need more petite clothes and represent us.
In the future BellaPetite.com will produce petite model searches. In addition to providing information on how to become a model. Thank you for your comments.
You really know what your doing here. I want to read more about the business of fashion.
Thanks LagunaSam. I have been in and around the fashion business nearly all my life and I’m so excited to bring Bella Petite’s new fashion and lifestyle movement online. Check in often… we have a lot in store for the site! Thanks for reading!
You got the hottest blog! I’m telling my friends to come here! Keep it real.
By reading about one of my favourite actresses I got to know this magazine.
According to height curves made in Great Britain by Tanner-Whitehouse and valid as I read also in Italy (the most important fashion country) a woman is considered tall over 173 cm and small (petite) under 151 cm. In Germany respectively over 178 cm and under 152 cm. I do not know whether in the US it is like in Germany or in Great Britain and Italy. Women under 150 cm are in Germany only 0,6% rarer than the tall ones 1.80-1.84 cm but less rare than the very tall women 1.85-1.89 cm who are respectively 1,8% and 0,2%.A 1.80 cm tall woman even if she is 20-25 cm shorter than 2-2.05 cm tall women is not short but tall. The same with women in the normal range 151-173 cm and 152-178 cm in Germany: even if they are 20-25 cm shorter than other taller women they are not short but of normal height. A.Jolie ,1.68 cm,is not tall but of normal stature and also Grace Kelly. I saw her in the film High society with Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, both 1.70 cm, perhaps 1.72 cm with shoes. With heels of 7-8 cm she was a few cm smaller than Bing Crosby. It means that her real height was 1.61-1.62 cm and for this reason an actress like Naomi Watts who has the same height would have been much more appropriate to play this role than Nicole Kidman who is 1.80 cm. The official height of Grace Kelly, 1.69-1.70 cm, is given with heels as it happened and happens also today with actresses. Some people do not tell the truth about the height of celebrities. I have also the photo of them toghether in my computer.
Grace Kelly is one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen and is more beautiful for my tastes than taller women who have also a pretty face. I do not consider beautiful a woman who has only a beautiful body but not a face I find beautiful. And Grace Kelly had both. I find really strange that mostly tall women win in the beauty contests and not women like Grace Kelly and that fashion houses do not employ models like her. IMO women with a normal stature from 1,55 to 170 cm wear sexy and feminine clothes by far better than tall women: I’ve seen Auvril Lavagne, 1.55 cm, other girls 5.2,5.3,.. in your photogallery. The tall and especially the very tall ones are better in clothes with a masculine look.
Scarlett Johansson,5.2, modeled sometimes for Mango. Then the title of Bella Petite should be changed: magazine for Bella normal and smaller and for Bella petite because I agree that Veronica Lake,Rita Hayworth,Panettiere, Kristen Chenoweth. and other young girls smaller than 151 cm in your photogallery look gorgeous. But it has no sense for me to speak about Amanda Seyfried, Scarlett Johansson, Naomi Watts, Amy Adams and others of “petite celebrities” since they are absolutely of normal height and are not short, small or petite because these adjectives mean inferior to what is considered normal statistically. (tall means superior to what is considered normal statistically). So normal means what is statistically frequent. The ones who do not have a normal stature are in most cases not sick but simply do not have the stature of most persons of their age.
Normalbereich http://www.willi-will-wachsen.de/lexikon/31.html
Fashion houses make their own personal classifications of women height according to their purposes and interests and totally different from statistical results.
I am a man and I do not find attractive these tall and very tall models because they have often an ugly face and are too tall, too slim much less feminine than women of normal stature especially those between 155 and 170 cm that are the ones I prefer, of course
also with a beautiful face.
Hello Roger, again we respectfully disagree with many of your comments and opinions. Our team of entertainment and fashion professionals have gone a long way to set the new fashion standards, which are 5’5″ tall and shorter.
Bella Petite Magazine is the only fashion, entertainment and lifestyle for women 5’5″ and shorter is the only magazine of its kind. Thank you for reading our publication!
I have forgotten to say that in my opinion it is not correct to put on the same level a woman like Grace Kelly 1.61-1.62 with one who is 1.51 cm or even smaller 1.40 cm as your magazine does. A woman who is 1.70 cm tall is different from a woman who is 1.80 cm tall or taller 1.90 cm.
It is absurd that Grace Kelly’s role is interpreted by actresses like Kidman,Paltraw,Teron and others who are much taller than Grace Kelly considering her real height and not the invented one and even taller than Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. Not only Naomi Watts but also Amanda Seyfried would be better choices. Amanda has such a beautiful face that equals the great beauty of Grace Kelly’s face.
Furthermore a woman who is 1.57 or 5.2 like Amanda and others is not the same as a woman 1.51 or 1.48 or 1.40.In fact a woman 1.75 cm tall is different from a woman who is 1.80 or 1.85 or 1.92.
But to call petite celebrities women like Amanda,Scarlett,Naomi,Amy and others like them, all women of normal height, sounds very offensive.
According to the standards of the fashion industry also Grace Kelly would be considered short and you would call her a ” petite celebrity!” That is useful for a woman who is 1.40 to be put on the same level of a woman who is 1.55 like Avril Lavigne,1.57 like Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson, 1.61-1.62 like Grace Kelly ,Amanda Seyfried who is 1.57 or 1.61,5.2 or 5.3 who have also beautiful or very beautiful faces but it is not useful for these women from 1.55cm to 1.64 cm to be put on the same level of women 1.40-1.45.1.51 cm because there is a difference between them as I showed before. Women between 1.55 cm and 1.65 cm are
not small petite short statistically but only in the personal arbitrary classifications of some people. All this is not correct and not certainly useful for women in the normal range from 1.55 to 1.65.
Grace Kelly was a delicate classical beauty and has to be interpreted by women who are like her also for her height,Naomi Watts ,Amanda Seyfried who is nearer to the real height of Grace Kelly than Kidman,Teron,Paltraw and has an extremely beautiful face like that of Grace.Furthermore she has the same aristocratic grace and elegance.
Do you think that all men are stupid and that believe that women 5.5 and under are all on the same level?
Do you think that men consider the amazons as you call them more beautiful than Grace Kelly,Amanda Seyfried,Marilyn Monroe,Amy Adams and others like them because,as you say, the fashion industry says that they are the”outcast of beauty”?
Perhaps some men think it is exactly the contrary.
Hello Roger, we respectfully disagree with many of your comments and opinions. However we appreciate your knowledge on heights abroad. Our team of entertainment and fashion professionals have gone a long way to set the new fashion standards, which are 5’5″ tall and shorter. Many fashion designers in the U.S. designer for women 5’6″ and shorter. The fashion industry considers women 5’7″ and shorter to be petite. We have taken into consideration that women who are 5’5″ and shorter fit properly scaled petite clothing sizes. In respect to men we beauty is subjective and in the eye of the beholder.
Bella Petite Magazine is the only fashion, entertainment and lifestyle for women 5’5″ and shorter is the only magazine of its kind. Thank you for reading our publication!
I am all for this “petite” woman argument although technically 5’3″ is the average height in America. Being a tall voluptuous woman myself (5′ 8.5″) I found it upsetting that you would make such a generalized statement like, “Tall women don’t have the curves and lack femininity” to try and back up your argument. While I do agree that many women selected for runway and print modeling lack curves, that should not be a blanket statement used for tall women. Those women are chosen specifically for their lack of curves and as you probably know many starve them selves to stay that way. Take models like Crystal Renn or Christina Hendricks as an example. These women, after allowing nature to do its work, are just as feminine/curvy as any “petite” woman. So in the future, I would suggest that you blame the industry and not the women they choose to employ as it is best to have all women on your side when going forward with this movement, not just the petite ones.
While I believe its awesome you are stabding up for petite women, it seems to me that you kind of bash women who are “supermodel” thin, by saying they “lack femininity”. I for one am a very naturally thin girl, but i am only 5’3″. Dont only praise the full figured or curvy petite woman, but also the thin ones too!
Hi Dakota, I believe you may have misunderstood the context of this article. Please keep in mind that our editor Ann Lauren is very petite and is only a size 0. We are here to be complimentary towards all shapes and sizes of petite women. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Have a lovely day!
yes i understand i am extremely late but i agree with Bella Petite. I have been reading your blog since i woke up and it just gives me hope that short women can model in the fashion life. i love this idea of petite modeling considering myself a young 4’11 18 year old women i dreamed of being a model in my future but not just my parents telling me im to short to do so, but also friends and other online sources. Their is very beautiful short women out there who also dream of modeling and i dont see why they should be any different and have fewer opportunities in achieving their dreams. I will be supporting this, like i said i love the idea and everyone deserves an opportunity even if it means we have to be parted from each other we can be our own supporters and achievers and i really believe that.
yes i understand i am extremely late but i agree with Bella Petite. I have been reading your blog since i woke up and it just gives me hope that short women can model in the fashion life. i love this idea of petite modeling considering myself a young 4’11 18 year old women i dreamed of being a model in my future but not just my parents telling me im to short to do so, but also friends and other online sources. Their is very beautiful short women out there who also dream of modeling and i dont see why they should be any different and have fewer opportunities in achieving their dreams. I will be supporting this, like i said i love the idea and everyone deserves an opportunity even if it means we have to be parted from each other we can be our own supporters and achievers and i really believe that.
As of right now I am 13 years of age and am 5 feet tall. I know i’m young and “petite”, but I have a drive and a passion for modeling and will do what it takes to get to the top. Currently I am enrolled in Barbizon Modeling classes, and I was also in a PSA life jacket commercial that will be airing this summer. I was just wondering what the possibilities were for me to have a career in modeling, as a petite model.
So basically this whole industry has lazy and unchallenged people in it? I mean if I were a fashion designer I would want to use a 5’5 or shorter model so that I could challenge myself for making clothing for their heights. By the way I’m 4’11.
Hi Zanyna, we agree with your observation. Thanks for being a loyal reader!