Relationships5 min(s) read
Published 08:56 10 Jul 2026 GMT
Having a healthy love life is tough enough as it is, but dating with dwarfism brings an entirely different set of challenges. This is partly why reality TV contestant John Ferguson leapt at the chance to star on a new TLC show called Little Singles.
The show follows a tight-knit group of friends within the little people community who reunite in Palm Springs for a wild vacation to party and explore romantic connections in a space where they feel fully understood.
John, a 28-year-old prank influencer, used the time to reconnect with old friends and explore dating while being surrounded exclusively by other people with Dwarfism, a very rare opportunity for people within the community.
For years, John admitted that romance wasn’t even on his radar. Heartbreakingly, he told VT: “I was never really interested in relationships or any of that, just because, like, at 4 feet, it was challenging.
“I learned the hard way that I wasn't really gonna find any average-sized women who I could hook up with, so I wasn’t really focused on any of that. I’ve lived single forever.”
Interestingly, John confessed that his own internal biases initially hindered his romantic hopes, because as he admitted: “Forever, I only wanted average heights. I was like, I don't want anyone small."
However, a turning point came in his early twenties that forced him to reevaluate his outlook and reconsider sexual partners he had previously dismissed.
John revealed: "When I was about 22 years old, I hooked up with one little person, and then I guess I was like, 'oh, well, you know what? This isn't horrible.' And then I hung out with a few other women, and then I was like, who am I to claim I won't want anything with someone little if I'm angry that averageites won't want me, you know?
“It's a bit hypocritical. So then, one thing led to another, I kind of shifted how my brain works, and… I think I would happily love someone small.”
Through the annual Little People of America convention that John has attended since he was eight years old and taking part in Little Singles, John has realised that dating and socialising within the dwarfism community feels different, as you are finally compared to your peers.
John explained: “When you're with your little friends, it's more like, 'oh, wow, like, I need to look great, because we're all just having fun,' but there's also that opportunity to hook up, or even end up in a relationship."
The show also put a spotlight on the darker sides of dating, including being fetishized. John claims that women in the dwarfism community have it far worse than men because, “when a man wants to hook up with you, they’re creepy.”
He pointed out that while unwanted sexualization happens to most women regardless of height, one reason women with dwarfism are more highly sexualized is that the majority of OnlyFans creators in the community are women. They are often seen as a fetish that men want to tick off.
John’s own experiences of being fetishized tend to lean more bizarre than threatening. Occasionally, he is approached by older women who bluntly say: "I've never been with a little person before, I want you."
Recalling the few times this has happened, John prefers to take it in stride, telling VT: “You can just kind of laugh it off, you know? If I'm at the club or whatever, and they're like, 'we would like to hook up with you,' it's happened to Sammy and I, and we're just like, 'That's awesome!'”
Despite finding comfort among his peers, he doesn't necessarily want to live in a bubble, explaining: “I would assume a lot of us in the community wish that our whole lives were just with everyone else who is also small.
"Personally, I kind of… I like having a world where there's small, and then there's average height.”
For John, joining a reality show was an opportunity to bridge the gap between these two worlds. He said: “There's obviously a lot of differences living small through your young adulthood, but we also wanted to show that we kind of have a lot of similarities as well with the average size and the average world.”
Of course, those similarities include the inevitable, messy reality TV drama. As John explained: “When there's emotion and love within the house, and we're all… we're all living in that house. Like, I… I'll be honest, I truly felt uncomfortable, and I hated it when there was tension within the house, because usually when you're young and you're hooking up with whoever, you don't live in the same frickin' house.”
Thankfully, the unique bond shared by the cast, which you definitely do not see on Love Island, outlasted the film crew’s presence.
Fortunately John said: “We were able to go through this roller coaster of drama, craziness, all of this, and at the end of it, we're just all friends. Like, even currently, we're all chatting in a group constantly.”
