Ossendrecht, Netherlands - Princess Pauline was the shortest fully-grown woman ever recorded, and has remained that way even more than one hundred years after her death. She was the shortest woman in the world, and this is her story.

People come in all shapes and sizes, no matter where they come from.

For some, that means hectic height that'll lead to nasty head bumps from life's beginning to its end.

To others, however, that means precisely the opposite.

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There are some people in the world so short that it becomes truly extraordinary!

For Pauline, who lived in the late 1800s, her height became part of her personality – and even her livelihood. Still holding the world record for the shortest woman in the world more than 100 years later, her story is a truly fascinating one.

Born in 1876, Pauline Musters was the fifth in a family of nine children from Ossendrecht, a small city in the south of the Netherlands that's closer to Antwerp than to Amsterdam. Neither her father Michiel Muster, a carpenter, nor her mother Anna Maria thought that she would survive when she first entered the world measuring less than 12 inches.

Not only would Pauline survive, but she would grow up to be the shortest woman ever recorded, measuring just 24 inches when she was fully grown. Though she began life with little hope of even surviving infancy, her extraordinary stature eventually made her not only the family's eventual breadwinner but also a historical figure still remembered 120 years later.

Awarded the title of shortest woman ever by Guinness World Records, it wasn't the record that earned her fame. Instead, Pauline – a girl born in a barn because her parents' house burnt down in a fire – would become fabulously rich as she toured the world showing off her height.

Her father Michiel eventually became her manager as they started touring Belgium and the Netherlands before her first birthday.

As the years went by and her tininess became ever more extraordinary, the money they were making eventually became enough to buy the family a villa.

It was not merely her height either that made her so extraordinary, however. At her heaviest, Pauline weighed only four pounds and five ounces! She became famous throughout Europe, eventually earning her the name "Princess Pauline."

Over the years, Pauline managed to make money doing events for crowds all across Europe and the United Kingdom, including Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Edinburgh, and London. She was even received by then-Queen Emma of the Netherlands!

The star also made a lasting impression on the German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was so fascinated by Princess Pauline that he had a miniature carriage made for her. Only three feet high, the tiny vehicle was sadly lost a few years after her death.

Her final journey was to the United States, where she traveled and performed at Proctor's Theatre on Broadway in New York. She made $1,000 in one week, equivalent to a little less than $40 thousand in today's money.

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Sadly, the doctors who had warned her not to go overseas turned out to have been right.

After arriving in New York and finishing her performances, Princess Pauline contracted pneumonia as well as meningitis and never made it home to the Netherlands.

While a shorter person is not generally going to live any longer or shorter than an average-sized person, this was sadly not the case for Princess Pauline. Born in 1876, she was only 19 years old when she passed away in 1895. Since her death, she has been recognized for her work and legacy. There's even a museum dedicated to her in her hometown!

Throughout her life, she met several historical figures across Europe, made her family a lot of money, and was featured in many magazines and newspapers. While she didn't live very long, Princess Pauline's impressive list of accomplishments has stood the test of time.