Xiao Mai, a beautiful 25-year-old woman from China’s Heilongjiang province, has been having trouble finding a suitable boyfriend because of her height. She is 2.26 meters tall.
A few months ago, Xiao Mai introduced herself to the world in a short clip that quickly went viral on social media mainly because of the young woman’s impressive height. At 2.26 meters (7 ft 5 in), the 25-year-old dwarfs even the tallest of men, and that apparently makes her very intimidating to the opposite sex. Posting the first video of herself was Mai’s mother’s idea. She had watched a clip of a girl from Shanghai proposing to her boyfriend online and was inspired to use the same technique to find her daughter a boyfriend. Apart from showing off Xiao Mai’s impressive physical features, it also showed moments from her daily life as well as an appeal from her mother to everyone watching to suggest suitable boyfriends for her. The video went viral and before long, strangers started showing up at the family’s door in Heilongjiang asking to meet the girl.
Xiao Mai’s story originally made news headlines in China back in April, when her first video went viral. The young girl was visibly awkward in front of the camera, but she and her mother have been uploading photos and videos ever since and she seems to have become a lot more comfortable. The family has been getting visits from strangers from all over the country, and even though they are not all from potential suitors but also random people wanting to know the 2.26-meter-tall girl and have their picture taken with her, Xiao Mai and her family never turn them away.
“At first I was confused when strangers came to my house, but gradually I discovered that they were very enthusiastic in helping me find good men from everywhere,” the 25-year-old girl told Toutiao, adding that feeling people’s kindness toward her has helped her become more confident about her height.
Growing up, Xiao Mai was also considerably taller than most kids her age, and by the time she was in 7th grade, she already measured 1.80 meters (6 ft). She became the star of her school’s girls basketball team and helped it win several regional tournaments. She was courted by professional basketball clubs in the country, but she declined to join any of them in order to focus on her studies. Unfortunately, she had to stop playing basketball in 8th grade because of a serious injury.
Mai continued to grow at a rate of about 10 cm per year, and her height caused her all sorts of troubles. In class, she never really had enough space for her legs under the desk, her bed wasn’t long enough, and she could rarely find ready-made clothes to fit her. When riding the bus, she always went to the back, where she felt it was easier to avoid people’s stares. All these problems made her very self-conscious about her height and caused her to retreat into a shell, having as few interactions with other people as possible.
Xiao Mai’s mother said that, apart from helping her find a boyfriend and potential husband, the main reason she encouraged her daughter to promote herself online was to boost her confidence. She appears to have done just that, as the 25-year-old girl is no longer nervous about interacting with strangers and showing off her impressive figure online.
