Love Comes In All Sizes

Peet is the only one in his family who is not a dwarf. Now he and his mom have taken to TikTok to change attitudes

- Lesego Mkhize

When he was a little kid all he wanted was to look like the rest of his family. Normal-sized in a home full of people with dwarfism, he stood out like a sore thumb – and his school mates let him know it.

When they came to play they’d ask him why he lived in a “midget house” and call him “a giant”.

“I wished I was a dwarf too,” Peet Montzingo says. “At least that way I’d fit in. I was always trying to fit in somewhere.”

But there was one thing that Peet had in abundance growing up and that was love. And love, as he discovered, can conquer most things, even the bullies.

Families come in all shapes and sizes, his mom, Vicki, taught him – and as long as they were kind to each other, the mean people didn’t matter.

A sense of humor is a pretty important tool for coping in an often cruel world too – and it’s a combination of love and laughter that’s helped Peet and his mom become internet sensations.

Vicki (60), who’s 1,2m tall, and Peet (29), who towers over her at 1,85m, have been capturing hearts with their sweet TikTok videos which highlight their differences.

Peet’s TikTok channel has amassed more than two million followers along with a vast amount of positive feedback, which has encouraged mother and son to continue creating videos to teach others that little people are regular people too.

“Doing TikTok has been important because a lot of people don’t know about little people,” Vicki says. “They don’t understand that while we may look a little different, walk a little differently, we’re all just the same inside.”