‘World’s tallest woman’ Xiao Mo dubbed ‘The Giant’ dies at 23 ‘from the cold’ after finding fame as Chinese TikTok star
A YOUNG woman known for her extreme height has died under unusual circumstances, aged just 23.
Online star Xiao Mo of Shaoyang, China stood 7.5ft tall and boasted more than 152,000 followers on video social media platform Douyin.
She reportedly died on January 15 after succumbing to complications from a cold she had recently caught.
Mo was popular on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, for her videos documenting her daily life, and was sometimes referred to as “Hunan’s No. 1 Giantess”, local media reports.
Many were intrigued by her height – she was four centimetres taller than NBA star Yao Ming.
She is said to have had a difficult upbringing, having been abandoned by her mother and raised by her grandparents.
According to Chinese media, Mo suffered a range of underlying health conditions, such as heart and sight issues, which were connected to her extreme height.
She was reportedly cremated – and it is believed her father, who she did not have a good relationship with, is yet to collect her ashes from the crematorium.
Her shock passing devastated her tens of thousands of followers.
One Douyin user said online: “Have a good trip Xiao Mo. I hope you’ll be a healthy girl with loving parents in your next life.”
Someone else commented: “She and my sister were classmates in elementary school, and later in junior high school, because she was too tall and in poor health, she stopped studying.
“My sister said that she was a very good person, always helping her classmates and being very easy to get along with.”
Although Mo was thought by some to be the world’s tallest woman, the tallest is in fact Rumeysa Gelgi of Turkey.
Rumeysa became the world’s tallest woman when she turned 18 and stands 7.7ft tall, according to Guinness World Records.
The 25-year-old was born with the rare Weaver syndrome, a genetic condition that causes bone overgrowth, which is the reason for her height and a number of medical issues she suffers, including scoliosis.
Her condition also comes with some physical challenges, which Rumeysa discovered when she recently took her first-ever flight from Turkey to California.
Due to her medical issues, she cannot comfortably sit up for more than two hours at a time, so she had to lay on a stretcher during the entire 13-hour flight to San Francisco, she told The US Sun.
To make room for a platform for the stretcher, Turkish Airlines had to close off six seats.
Rumeysa explained: “Lying down was the only possible option for me and also the safest option.
“This was not an easy process. I mean, this is not what they do often. The option is only provided by a few airline companies in the world, and thankfully one of them was Turkish Airlines.”
She said that passengers were only typically allowed to use a stretcher if they were in acute medical distress, adding: “I was probably the first person who used this option for a tourism reason.”
