If you happen to have a spare hour and 42 minutes this weekend, I highly recommend you don’t waste it watching “Tall Girl”. “Tall Girl” is a Netflix original movie that came out Sept. 13 and caused some controversy quickly. 

  I am not usually one to oppose romcoms, as I love a great cheesy movie as much as the next high school girl. “Tall Girl”, though, is something else. Of course, it has the mean girl, the dream guy, and the underdog, but it also has a very annoying main character, Jodi (Ava Michelle). 

  Jodi shares her experiences with being tall in high school and how she often feels like an outcast. Because of her height, she struggles to get a much wanted boyfriend but gains hope when a new foreign exchange student joins her school. 

  Jodi’s opening line in the movie is, ”You think your life is hard? I’m a high school junior wearing size 13 Nikes. Men’s size 13 Nikes. Beat that.” The thing that makes this movie so wrong is that a great portion of the United States can indeed “beat that.”.  

  For example, the majority of this movie just contains clips of a wealthy, white girl complaining. Jodi lives in a large house, has nice clothes, and food to eat, her biggest worry is only her height. Because of this it is easy to make the conclusion that many other kids in this country are going through way worse, so it is insensitive to say “beat that” like she is the only one struggling. 

  To put that in perspective, according to Global Citizen, “Around 20% of children in the US live in poverty.”  Cure Search said, “Every day, 43 children are diagnosed with cancer and more than 40,000 children undergo treatment for cancer each year.” The Miracle Foundation stated that there are almost “500,000 children in the United States foster care system.” 

  Those kids living in poverty can “beat that.” The children being treated for cancer right now can “beat that.” Boys and girls in foster care can “beat that.” This movie is insanely disrespectful to anyone who has ever had an issue greater than wearing big shoes.

  I do understand that Jodi does indeed get bombarded with rude comments like, “How’s the weather up there?” Those would be frustrating and life isn’t great when you feel like you don’t fit in, but I didn’t appreciate how much of a pity party she threw for herself. I don’t go into a movie hoping to listen to privileged people whine, and I feel as though most people would agree.

Taylor Means, Editor in Chief