"Little People, Big World,"
Documenting
a Family That Comes in 2 Sizes
By FELICIA R. LEE
Shopping for clothes with teenagers can be an experience loaded with
emotional land mines. Viewers can peek at an unusually fraught
expedition in the first few minutes of "Little
People, Big World," a
new series beginning Saturday on TLC. Amy Roloff, a
dwarf, shops with
her 15-year-old twin sons, one of whom is also a dwarf.
"I hate shopping," Zach Roloff tells the
camera after watching his
average-size brother Jeremy easily shrug into an
outfit. At about
4-foot-2, Zach has to go to the children's department for pants and
shirts.
Later, though, Zach is shown playing soccer with Jeremy and other much
bigger teammates, and he manages to score a goal. Along with the
heartache and simple struggles like reaching a store's top shelves,
there are plenty of sweet moments in the world of the Roloffs,
the
and Amy, the parents, are dwarfs, and besides the twins, the family
includes Jacob, 8, and Molly, 12, both of average size.
TLC is billing "Little People, Big World" as the most comprehensive
television documentary ever about the lives of little people. The
cameras were trained on the family for almost seven months, beginning
last August (Jacob has since turned 9), and the series consists of 20
30-minute episodes. Each Saturday at
will be broadcast back to back.
The series will capture ordinary experiences like camping and
celebrating a wedding anniversary, as well as those particular to the
lives of little people, like attending a Little People of
conference or Zach's emergency surgery for a condition related to his
dwarfism.
In one episode, viewers will see the twins attend their first formal
dance. In another, Amy coaches Jacob's soccer team. ("All my teammates
are the same size as my mom," he says matter-of-factly.)
"We were thinking, 'Maybe this will help one person,' "
Matt Roloff,
44, said in a recent interview about his family's participation in the
series. "We don't claim to be representing all little people. We're
going through our own particular challenges. But this is without a
doubt the most in-depth look at dwarfism. We don't want to get into
messaging, but just follow us through a day. Every other documentary
is either overly rosy or overly focused on problems."
Zach, who is going through the usual pains of adolescence, said he
hoped that by watching him, young people would realize that he was not
so different. He worries about being shy and dreams of having three
sons, all dwarfs. And he deals with being called a nasty name, an
incident he tells his mother about in an early episode. "It's just
life," he said in an interview.
Jeremy, his twin, said, "I kind of wish kids would have a sense of our
life."
"I'm just a regular person who happens to be little," Amy Roloff, 43,
said in an interview. The biggest concern for her and her husband was
how Zach would be depicted in the series. Now, they both say, they
hope that he will acquire some of the resilience and coping strategies
that sometimes come with a life like theirs. Ms. Roloff
teaches
preschool and works as an administrative assistant at a local soccer
club, in addition to helping run the 34-acre farm, where the family
grows pumpkins and peaches. She and her husband of 18 years are both
4-foot-1.
Mr. Roloff, a former president of Little People of
America, an
advocacy and social group with about 5,500 members nationwide, brings
his talent for combining the didactic and the entertaining to the
series. He sells items to make life handier for little people,
including a kit with products to make hotel rooms more accessible.
In one of the first "Little People" episodes he visits a middle
school
where he talks to the students about undergoing dozens of operations
as a child to correct his club feet and misaligned joints. He now uses
crutches and drives a specially equipped minivan. "I've been through
the school of hard knocks," he tells the students, so it does not
especially bother him to be called names.
But Zach and Jeremy find it hurtful, they said during the interview,
and Zach said he did not want to entertain questions about his size.
Dan Okenfuss, the spokesman for Little People of
America, said dwarfs
still faced ridicule, discrimination and everyday challenges, like
ATM's and gas pumps that are too tall. "We're one of the last
demographics it's O.K. to mock," he said. "You'll see a lot of shows
where dwarfs are the running joke."
The producers of "Little People," who turned to Mr. Okenfuss and his
organization for information, said that fleshing out the quotidian and
the extraordinary in the lives of the Roloffs would
allow viewers to
know the family as individuals and would also demystify dwarfs.
The Roloffs first struck a chord when they were seen
on the Discovery
Channel last March in "Little People, Big Dreams," said Gay Rosenthal,
producer of the new series and president of Gay Rosenthal Productions,
whose previous shows include "Behind the Music" on VH1. (Discovery
Channel and TLC are both part of Discovery Communications Inc.)
In an era of shows about families that exchange mothers, homes and
even racial identities, the series should be eye-opening for viewers
who think they have seen and heard it all, said Joseph Freed, an
executive producer of "Little People." "This answers so many
questions," he said. "Can a dwarf mother have average children?
What's
it like to buy clothes?"
Little People of America defines dwarfism as a medical or genetic
condition that usually results in an adult height of 4-foot-10 or
shorter. ("Little people" and "dwarf" are the preferred
terms;
"midget," which historically referred to a proportionate dwarf, is
now
considered offensive by many.) There are no census bureau figures on
the number of dwarfs but estimates by various sources put the number
at 300,000 or more in the
genetic conditions can cause dwarfism.
In some ways, the family's desire to help people understand their
lives while not wanting to be exemplars of a whole group is
representative of the conundrum confronting all minority groups.
Betty M. Adelson, a psychologist who has written two
books on little
people, including "The Lives of Dwarfs: Their Journey From
Public
Curiosity Toward Social Liberation," said dwarfism sites on the
Internet had been buzzing about "Little People, Big World." Some hope
it will help alleviate the stigma of dwarfism, she said, while others
hope that the Roloffs will be seen only as
individuals.
"I think what's hoped for, in part, is to raise a sense of interest
and awareness," Dr. Adelson, whose 31-year-old
daughter is a dwarf,
said of the series. "I hope the public sees the part that is average
and the part that's different."