Copyright newsweek
A seven foot man was expecting an uncomfortable trip when he boarded his five-hour flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta, but then things took an unexpected turn. Beau Brown made his name as a social media influencer with over seven million followers across all platforms thanks, in no small part, to his size. According to the CDC, the average height for men in the U.S. is five foot nine inches. A former college basketball player, Brown is seven foot, one inch. His towering height has been the focus of much of his content on YouTube and, more recently, TikTok. “When TikTok first started I made a video making fun of my height and it went viral and I had 300,000 followers overnight,” Brown told Newsweek. Brown sees the videos he makes poking fun at his distinctive stature as something of a “coping mechanism.” Being as tall as he is, Brown can often get attention in public and encounters unexpected complications in his everyday life. He says he struggles with “social anxiety” as a result. Air travel is a prime example of the kind of everyday scenarios that have an added layer of complications due to his height. “Air travel has always been a very stressful thing for me because often, if I’m not able to get an exit row, it is a very unpleasant flight meaning my knees are up against the back of the seat or a person’s armrest. It leaves marks on my legs, and I sort of have to pretzel my legs to be able to sit.” Brown is so tall he can’t even fit in an economy seat on a standard aircraft, meaning he has to pay more to sit in either an exit row or larger seat, like the Comfort+ seats available on Delta. “Sometimes I’ve even had to spend hundreds more and had to get first class because no other seat was available,” he said. Getting through security, and dealing with the comments and stares is stressful enough. It only gets worse on the plane, with Brown unable to even stand without hitting his head. That’s all before he even gets to his seat. That’s when it gets really stressful. “I never really know if I will truly fit,” he said. “Then I have to deal with the outcome of possibly trying to beg others for their bigger seats and often it’s a very firm no. Don’t even get me started on airplane bathrooms.” Beau Brown struggled to fit on most planes. Brown was facing one of those uncomfortable journeys on his way back to Atlanta. He had been unable to buy an exit row seat while even the Comfort+ seat he purchased offered no guarantee of comfort, as the seat space available can differ depending on the model of plane he was traveling on. In any event, when he got to his seat, Brown quickly realized he didn’t have the leg room he needed to enjoy a comfortable journey. He sat down and prepared himself for a painful few hours. Then the woman sitting directly in front of him turned around and asked him no one had ever asked in this situation before: “would you like to switch seats with me?” “She intervened after I had sat down,” Brown said. “She heard me talking to the person next to me about how I didn’t fit.” Brown had been recording a video using his POV camera and had forgotten to press stop, meaning the encounter was captured on video. That simple offer, which made little difference to the woman’s journey, meant so much to Brown. “It made it so I could easily just sit and enjoy the ride as much as I could,” he said. “Before I would’ve just been stressing about the possibility of the person in front of me putting their seat back and then having to deal with them being upset that they couldn’t put their seat back because it’s against my knees and having them roll their eyes or say something mean comment like it’s happened in the past many times.” It was only later, while reviewing and uploading videos from throughout the day, that Brown came across the interaction and decided to post it online, across multiple platforms, under the handle @bigbeaubrown. “I knew instantly I should post it because maybe it could help others be more aware,” he said. “If you see somebody who is very tall and struggling to sit behind you and you can comfortably fit in that seat maybe out of the goodness of your heart switch with them because no matter what you were going to be comfortable anyway anyways and you just made that tall person’s day.” Brown also has a message for the woman who helped him that day. “Thank you for turning what would’ve been a five hour nightmare into a very enjoyable flight and just thank you for being a kind human,” he said. “A lot of times people just stare at me or laugh. She went out of her way to help me and that means the world.”
