Little girl, big personality
Tiny cheerleader hopes to inspire others
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PORT LAVACA – “Go, Travis, go!” the 13-year-old cheerleader shouted over the crowd.
Allie Gonzales may be shorter than the other Travis Middle School cheerleaders, but she has a reputation for being the loudest. Her friends call her Speaker Box.
“You can always hear Allie out of all the girls,” mom Christine Gonzales said. “Her voice carries so much.”
Christine cheered on the family’s youngest daughter between girls’ basketball games on Jan. 12. She and dad, Chris, videotaped their daughter’s moves, just like they’ve done for all th eir four kids’ athletic activities.
At 3 feet and 10 inches tall, Allie stands out from the rest of her tall family with two brothers, Anthony and Roger Ray, who are more than 6 feet tall. Her older sister Ariel plays basketball.
Yet, Allie’s outgoing personality overshadows her height and she burns with just as much ambition as her siblings.
Allie was born with achondroplasia, a genetic dwarfism that results in shorter arms and legs. Her head and torso are average-sized.
Like 80 percent of cases, her parents didn’t know they even carried the gene for the condition. Allie jokes she got it from her dad because he’s shorter.
Growing up, Allie didn’t understand why some people would stare at her and she would ask her mom what they wanted.
Yet, she started about the same height as some of her classmates in elementary school and they didn’t seem to really notice, Allie said.
It wasn’t until this past year, as an eighth-grader, that Allie came right out and told her friends about her dwarfism. The research paper she did on herself for English class helped her explanation.
Some understood achondroplasia, others didn’t, but by then they knew the type of person Allie was regardless of her condition.
“My friends really like me,” she said. “They love that I’m little.”
But sometimes, she hates being babied by her father or how everyone thinks she’s cute and wants to hug her.
Chris Gonzales, 45, wants to shield his youngest from any mean kids or adults who might tease her. He hopes her freshman year at Calhoun High School goes smoothly.
He’s less nerve-wracked this year than when Allie made the jump from elementary school to middle school.
Having older brothers and a sister helped Allie make friends with the older kids, though. Plus, her brothers were protective of her.
“I was worried, but I wasn’t,” Chris said. “It’s a cruel world.”
Allie just laughs at her dad. He always tries to help her around the house, too.
No one can tell a little person lives at the Gonzales home, except for the presence of a couple stools, a long string attached to the ceiling fan and one bathroom with a low light switch.
“I’m like, ‘Dad, I got it,’” she said, laughing. “How do you expect me to do this when you’re not there?”
Allie wants to move away from Port Lavaca and experience life. She hopes one day to be a therapist and listen to kids’ problems, like peer pressure.
“I just want to feel what other kids are going through while they’re young and tell them it’s OK,” she said.
She wants to teach teenagers to be leaders and not followers. Allie never doubted she could do anything, even though one doctor was worried about her cheerleading.
She can’t fly, or be thrown up, as a cheerleader and she has to watch how much she jumps. Her joints experience more pain than others and her spine is more vulnerable to breakage.
Growing up in a sports family, she played volleyball in seventh-grade, where she could pick a low ball or set it up for her teammates.
Before her freshman year, Allie hopes to fix her slight bowleggedness, which requires a six-week procedure of turning pins in her legs. That’ll help her lower back by distributing the weight more evenly.
“She’s not stoppable,” her dad said, pepping her up.
“I’m a leader,” she said, then gave a laugh.
Comments
Go Allie! Remember: "Girls Rule!"
February 2, 2009 at 3:39 p.m.