Michelle

August 31, 2007
Miss Canada Petite has beauty and brains
By MIKE STROBEL -- Sun Media


Miss Petite Canada, Valerie Rodriguez, poses at the Pacific Mall in Scarborough. (SUN/Veronica Henri)

Once upon a time, I shot hoops with a team of dwarves called the Half Pints. They were quick with an elbow. My knees still bear the scars.

This is something completely different.

Meet Valerie Rodriguez, 20, Miss Canada Petite 2007. We're at the Pacific Mall at Steeles Ave. E. and Kennedy Rd.

Valerie? Val, where are you?

"Down here."

Just kidding. Enough with the short jokes.

Ms. Rodriguez is 4-11 and, if I'm allowed to say this in today's world, an absolute knockout.

Yet another reason I'm proud to be a Scarberian. She was crowned last week.

Maybe now no one will ask her if she's a midget.

Hey, that's a genetic condition, the medical word is "dwarf" the politically correct term is "little person" and to join Little People of Ontario you must be under 4-10.

"Actually, I'm 4-11 and three quarters," Valerie says. "God wouldn't give me that last quarter of an inch."

No matter. He did not shortchange her otherwise.

In four-inch heels she is 5-3 with hair of shimmery brown and eyes to match. Eyes deep as the South China Sea. You could float a balangay boat in those eyes. She arrived from the Philippines when she was a year old.

She was the GTA's Miss Manila 2005.

'IT'S OKAY TO BE SHORT'

It was her idea to meet us at the Pacific Mall, heart of one of Toronto's largest Chinatowns, where she shops.

She lives nearby, off Pharmacy Ave.

"There are a lot of short people in that mall," she told me down the line. I could hear a twinkle in those eyes.

It is true. Immigration has given Canada many good things, including four Chinatowns in Toronto, sushi bars and fine nurses. But towering height is not one of them.

We are now among the shortest people in the world. Our women average 5 feet 3.4 inches. American women are taller. Brits, Aussies, French. Most women, except those in Pacific Rim nations.

So a Miss Canada Petite pageant was a no-brainer.

"Because of diversity we have a lot of petite women," says pageant exec Mias Pilar, 28, whose roots are Italian-Filipina.

"This is very empowering," Val says.

Even so, she was the shortest of nine finalists at a North York hall. Next up was 5-2. Saskatchewan sent an Amazon of 5-5, right on the limit.
Beauties all, of course.

"It's okay to be short and proud of it," says Pilar, a towering 5-7. "You can be short and beautiful."

LONG LINE OF SHORT GALS

Someone tell the fashion world, which has an unofficial floor of 5-6.
Scarlett Johansson is 5-4. Say no more. I wonder if Scarlett is loud and feisty.

"That's how many of us compensate for our height," Val says. "It's a way to counter stereotypes, like we're weak and fragile."

Some people talk like she's a child. I don't advise patting her on the head.
There are advantages, too. She was a dodgeball star in high school.

She won $3,000 last week. Next summer, she goes to Houston, Texas to represent Canada in the Miss Petite International Pageant.

Sun photographer Veronica Henri, 5-5, finishes the shoot among replicas of Chinese warriors in the mall's Heritage Town. We sip mango slush bubble tea. A mall manager poses with Valerie.

No problem finding clothes to fit here. Val is size 0. She often prowls children's sections.

Fashion designers may want 6-foot living mannequins to parade their clothes, but I suspect we'll see the new Miss Canada Petite in more cerebral pursuits.

She's getting a four-year psychology degree at York and is undecided about teaching, broadcasting or marketing.

There are plenty of role models under 5 feet. Gloria Swanson, Olga Korbut, Joan of Arc, Dr. Ruth, Edith Piaf.

Bonnie Parker, of Bonnie and Clyde, was 4-11 in her stocking feet.

Now there was a petite woman you didn't dare call Shorty.