Primordial Dwarves

So I should admit that I have a bit of an obsession. I am fascinated by human difference, in particular, physical human differences. I have watched shows on TLC and Discovery Health about face eating tumors, people with tails, a girl who walks on her hands, a boy whose lower leg is on backwards, a girl born without a face (that one was really upsetting, actually), a guy with hands that looked like trees, a man with half a body, a woman with half a body, a girl with a mermaid like condition, the list goes on and on and on and on. I really think, had I been born in the early part of this century, that I would have frequented circus sideshows. I know, it's really weird.

But of all unique human conditions, my main fascination has always been conjoined twins. Lorrie & Dorrie, Cheng & Eng, and of course my absolute favorites, Abby and Brittany Hensel, pictured at right, the incredibly brave, motivated girls who have a total between them of two arms, two legs, one set of genitalia, and of course, two heads. They are two people, not one, but they, for all intents and purposes, do look like one person. And really, you can spend hours just thinking about all the interesting things about their lives. Like, how they can run and swim and drive a car - all things they very ably do!


However, I think that I have recently found a new human difference that might be even more interesting to me than conjoined twins. And that, ladies and gents, is the human phenomenon of primordial dwarves. These are not your average dwarves, of which I also know a great deal about (is it weird that I want to attend the LPA, or Little People of America, convention?). But these dwarves, of which there are only about 100 in the world, are tiny little miracles. They are the smallest people on earth, and unlike the dwarves you are used to seeing out and about or on shows like "Little People, Big World", these primordial dwarves are proportionate.

The most common form of dwarfism is achondroplasia, and that's what I am referring to when I say the dwarves you are used to seeing - they have larger than average heads and foreheads, regular sized torsos and butts, and then short arms and legs with short, wide hands. Not primordial dwarves. They are more similar to the "midgets" of yore. They pretty much look like people that are shrunk down to tiny size. And when I say tiny size, I mean teeny tiny little sized. I will post some pictures for you below so that you can marvel at their teenyness. As long as you do so in a respectful way. Because I've got to tell you, when I watch these shows, what I am most impressed with is how strong willed and brave most of these people are. Their lives, for one genetic reason are another, are so complicated and different from ours, and yet they make it work.