Statistically, Americans may be getting shorter, but like all evolution, that takes time, and not everyone has shrunk. Take, for example, that tall girl you've got your eye on across the bar. You'd like to impress her, right? Two key pieces of advice: A) Be yourself (as your Mom told you about 10 years ago) and B) don't make a big thing of her height.

In the interest of aiding your love life, writer Laura Gilbert asked a WNBA team's worth of willowy women what clichéd lines turn them off most. Heed their warnings and you might just get to check "chick over six feet tall" off your "to do before I die " list.

10. "You must be a model!" (This line shows that you're not trying very hard, even if you clarify up front that you're only asking because she's really rilly pretty.)

9. "You can't be 5' 10". I'm 5'10"!" (It's one thing to lie about your height while you're sitting down or on an Internet profile. When you say this to someone who has to lean down to hear it, you're busted.)

8. "Is it hard for you to meet people taller than you?" (If she has to explain the bell curve to you, you might not be an intellectual match.)

7. "Now there's a tree I'd like to climb." (Yummeh.)

6. "How do you kiss?" ( Or the skin-crawling subset: "Wow, I feel like I'm the girl!" You do realize that kissing doesn't require her to use her legs, right?)

Read the top five things you shouldn't say (after the jump).



5. "I could eat my way to the top." (Stop. Just stop.)

4. "How tall are you, anyway?" (Think about it: Whatever she answers won't make much difference, except that you'll look sorta insecure for having asked. Use some deductive reasoning and you should be able to guess within an inch or two.)

3. "How do you wear heels?" (Like everyone else: one foot at a time. She looks even better when she does it, shortstack.)

2. "It won't matter much when we're lying down." (Only a fool would invite commentary on the inches that do make a difference during horizontal integration.)

1. "Do you play basketball?" (People don't ask "Do you play professional baseball?" just because you're paunchy and chew tobacco. Pay it forward by giving tall women the same courtesy.)

What lines did we leave out? Let us know.

If you want to see some tall beauties who could probably kick your butt, check out this gallery.


Tall Women

    Brooke Shields, 6'

    Dimitrios Kambouris, WireImage.com

    Yao Defen, 7.74 feet tall.. believed by doctors to be the tallest woman in the world.

    Imaginechina / ZUMA Press

    Australian basketball-star Lauren Jackson, at 6'5"

    WireImage.com

    Connecticut Sun's 7-foot-two-inch center Margo Dydek, of Poland.

    Gregory Bull, AP

    Naomi Campbell, 5' 10" and Claudia Schiffer, 5' 11".

    Nick Harvey, WireImage.com

    Sandy Allen,who stands 7 feet 6 inches is registered as the tallest woman in the world by the Guiness World of Records.

    U.S. national team head coach Anne Donovan, at 6'8".

    Paul Sakuma, AP

    Liberty's Katie Feenstra, 6'8"

    T. Quinn, WireImage.com

    Cleopatra Jones, 6'2"

    tallwomen.org

    Kara Wolters of the United States Women's National basketball team

    Jesse D. Garrabrant, NBAE / Getty Images