14 DAY TRIAL // A young girl from Warrington, Cheshire is considered to be Britain's smallest teenager at just under 2 feet 8 inches (80 cm). She is shorter than a normal two-year-old child.
Despite being so short at her age, Georgia Rankin, who is now 15, wants to live like any other teen around her. The girl is very optimistic, confident and outgoing and she has the same activities and routine as other kids her age – she is preparing for her school prom, she likes to play on the beach and she even won a place in the X Factor studio audience.
Georgia suffers from a rare condition called skeletal dysplasia, or dwarfism, which caused her bones to prematurely fuse as a toddler. This disease makes her body unnaturally small, although it appears well proportioned.
Dwarfism is extremely rare, as it occurs only in one out of 10,000 births, according to medical records. Initially, doctors told Georgia's parents she wouldn't survive more than a few years, but now they think she can live a normal life, like any other person, although her body won't grow any bigger.
Now, Georgia is impatiently waiting the day of the prom and she is as enthusiastic as any of her colleagues.
“It’s my school prom coming up and me and friends have got a limo. I can’t wait. I have managed to get the perfect prom dress. I love it – it is so glamorous. This time it is an advantage being small. All my friends are fighting over prom dresses but nobody will have the same one as me,” says the girl cheerfully, according to IB Times.
While she doesn't let her physical disability bring her down, Georgia and her parents have gone through a lot of difficulties in the past 15 years. For two years, Georgia has seen herself compelled to use an electric wheelchair because walking became very difficult and painful.
Her parents, Andrea and Simon, had sent her X-rays to numerous specialists around the globe, but at first nobody could give them an exact diagnostic and identify the rare condition.
“Georgia is a very brave young lady and a wonderful person. Her treatment is progressing and our team is doing everything possible to help her and her family,” says consultant orthopedic surgeon Colin Bruce of Liverpool’s Alder Hey hospital.