Hannah Jones/ Winonan

Bekah Bailey is a sophomore at Winona State University. She has chosen a double major in theater, and leadership and advocacy and has never had any trouble speaking up for herself.

She is also four feet tall.

Bailey, along with her mother and younger sister, has dwarfism. Growing up in Coon Rapids, Minn., she learned quickly not to let anyone make her feel less.

“My sister would let words sink in, and they would bother her,” she said.

Bailey spoke up for both of them. If anyone ever had something to say to her, she would say something back.

Bailey was sitting at Mugby Junction on a recent day finishing up a paper. She noticed a stranger walking past her table several times while she was there.

“I just thought maybe he was trying to find a spot to sit,” she said.

He then met a friend and hung around for a bit. When the two decided to leave the coffee shop, he said to his friend he was just going to quickly “snap a picture” before they went.

He walked up to Bailey’s table, took a photo of her and left.

Unfortunately, it was only one in several incidents to have happened this year.

As a young girl, Bailey can only remember one incident when a stranger tried to photograph her, but since coming to college, the experience has become all too frequent.

“I guess it’s the idea of seeing something that’s not seen every day,” she said. “But at the same time, people would take pictures of someone in a wheelchair.”

Usually, she said, they ask first. Then Bailey does not have a problem telling them “no,” and explaining why it is inappropriate. They are usually apologetic, once they think about it for five seconds, Bailey said.

But when they photograph and run, there’s no chance to confront the problem.

“I don’t get how people process that that would be an okay thing to do,” she said.

The fact is, as a little person, Bailey does live her life a bit differently and face some different challenges. For one thing, in some of the older buildings at Winona State, the sinks are too high to reach.

“I do constantly have hand sanitizer with me,” she said.

But then there are the questions she gets from friends and even random strangers: “How do you shower?” or  “How are you going to have kids?”

Bailey has never considered herself as helpless or even all that different. Her mother, the only little person out of ten siblings, was taught to work around a world built for larger people and has raised her daughters to do the same.

“I thank my mom almost every day now that I’m living in an apartment on my own,” she said. “You have to adapt because this world is not going to change.”

But Winona State, she said, has been very welcoming in general. She’s made great friends and had great opportunities.

In the future, she’d like to use her two majors to become a motivational speaker for people with physical disabilities.

In the meantime, though, she would love to talk to anyone.

“Say ‘hi,’ and talk to me,” she said. “I feel like I’m pretty cool to be around.”