In February 2020, when Krystle-Jayne Mei-Ying Ng first saw the dating app profile of Hanna Sophia Rinderknecht-Mahaffy, one crucial detail struck her: her listed height.
Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy’s profile on Her, a dating app for L.G.B.T.Q. women and nonbinary people, said that she was 6-foot-6. For Ms. Ng, who is 5-foot-2, the height difference was a deal-breaker. So after connecting on the app, she messaged her to find out: Was she really that tall?
Turns out, it was a typo. Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy, who is actually 5-foot-6, was new to the online dating scene and still getting the swing of things. With her height fears assuaged, Ms. Ng asked Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy out on a date.
The next day, they met at Victrola Coffee Roasters in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. At the time, Ms. Ng called herself a “serial dater.” Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy had never met up with a match from a dating app before.
At the coffee shop, Ms. Ng, 30, said she found herself “blown away by Hanna’s beauty.”
Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy, 27, a self-described introvert, was surprised by how easy it was to talk to Ms. Ng. They chatted for more than three hours. On their second date, they got tacos and went to the Wildrose, a lesbian bar in Capitol Hill, where they shared their first kiss on the dance floor.
Then, after just three dates, coronavirus lockdowns began. They pivoted to video dates, playing get-to-know-you games and finding that they shared many of the same core values in life.
