Thirty-four-year-old Yao Defen is known as Asia's tallest woman. At 7 feet 7 inches, 396 pounds, and a shoe size (EUR) of 78, Yao attracts a lot of attention. This "woman giant" makes her living as a circus performer. Her boss forces her to perform despite her physical ailments, and he even mistreated and bullied her when she requested to go to the hospital for a physical examination.
Yao Defen was born in Shucha Town of Liuan City in Shuchen County, Anhui Province in 1972. The fourth child of her family, she weighed only 6.16 pounds at birth. At age 3, her food intake was three times that of other children her age. By age 11, her height was 6 ft. 2 in., and she grew to be 6 ft. 8 in. by age 15. Finally, she became the tallest woman in Asia at 7 ft. 5 in., which is almost seven inches taller than the woman basketball star Zhen Haixia.
The story of this "woman giant" began to spread rapidly after she went to see a doctor at age 15 for an illness. After that, many companies attempted to train her to be a talented sports star. However, the plans were discarded because Yao was too weak. Because she is illiterate, since 1992 Yao Defen has been forced to earn a living by traveling with her father and performing.
Yao Defen's father and mother are both about 5 ft. 2 in. tall. Yao's giant stature was caused by a large tumor in the pituitary gland of her brain, which was releasing too much growth hormone and caused excessive growth in her bones. Six years ago, a hospital in Guangzhou Province removed the tumor and she stopped growing.
How is Yao's life now as the famous "woman gaint"? According to reports by China News Net, Yao Defen said she has gained nothing after two years of hard work. In 2003, she signed with a circus manager in Suzhou City in order to make a living and support her mother. During her national tours, she fell several times during the performances, and injured several parts of her body. Her boss, a person identified only as Mr. Qui, refused her request to be taken to a hospital and forced her to continue the performing.
Sandy Allen - Former World's Biggest or Tallest Woman
Till her death in August 2008 Sandy Allen was the biggest woman or the tallest woman in the world.At 7-feet, 7-1/4 inches, Sandy Allen is taller than any player in the National Basketball Association. In fact, according to the Guiness Book of World Records, Sandy is the tallest woman in the world.
Being the tallest woman in the world has its share of advantages, but it has its disadvantages too, Sandy says. But Sandy manages to laugh at those disadvantages. In her video, It's OK To Be Different, Sandy challenges kids to make the best of obstacles they face and to always treat others with respect.
By the time Sandy was ten years old, she was more than 6 feet tall! A tumor in her pituitary gland caused the gland to produce too much growth hormone.
In her late teens, Sandy had an operation that helped to control her growth.
Without that surgery, she would have continued to grow and, eventually, she would have died.
Today, at age 41, Sandy has already outlived her life expectancy. While her health problems are many, she takes the time to talk to kids whenever she can. Sandy's It's OK To Be Different video is a taping of just such a session. Sandy talks openly and honestly about her life and her problems. She responds warmly, gently, and with humor to the kids' curiosities.
"Some people make fun of me because I'm so tall, but I'm proud of myself," Sandy tells the kids. "You've got to be proud of yourselves too, no matter what you are. Be proud of yourselves and make the best of what you've got."
Sandy talks of a universal problem--feeling left out: "The boys made fun of me and the girls didn't want to be my friend because I was different," she tells the kids gathered around her. "I didn't get to participate in most of the things other kids got to participate in."
But that only taught Sandy that she couldn't give up. "Don't give up when you've got problems to solve," she implores.
Sandy is able to laugh at herself and encourages kids to learn to do the same. "If you can't laugh at yourself, then you're really in trouble," she says.
In her video, Sandy tells stories that interest kids and make them smile. She tells of pulling into a truck weighing station along the highway to be weighed, of meeting Michael Jackson (he's friendly and shy), and of her eating habits ("For breakfast this morning, I only had three short people!").
Sandy encourages kids to read too----an activity she did a lot of as a child. Today, Sandy serves as spokesperson for a program called I'm Big on Books---You Can Be Too!
In addition, Sandy talks about the Golden Rule, her 8-foot-long custom-made bed, and how she sews many of her own clothes and wears size 22 hand-me-down sneakers provided by stars of the NBA!
Sandy's video is not without its drawbacks. It's not exactly "studio quality." Also, some teachers might want to preview the video and fast forward by comments she makes about her preferred diet and about a brief encounter with a basketball official. But the positive messages stand out, and they are messages kids won't soon forget. Students will come away from the video awed and inspired by Sandy and her messages: "No problem is too big" and "It's OK to be different."
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