Weighing 11 pounds and standing just under 2 feet tall, Junrey Balawing is a tiny teenager who, as the TODAY anchors note in the video above, looks more than a little like a toddler.
But he has this going for him: The 18-year-old Filipino man was recently named the world's shortest man by Guinness World Records. At 23.6 inches tall, he just barely misses the record for the shortest man in history -- that title is still held by Gul Mohammed of India, who was 22.5 inches tall and died in 1997.
Balawing displaces the world's former shortest man, Khagendra Thapa Magar, who is 26.4 inches tall.
The teenager lives with his family in Sindangan, Philippines. His father, Reynaldo, tells Guinness World Records that when the teenager was born, the family's luck turned around: They'd been living in poverty, but after Junrey's birth, Reynaldo was able to find a job that provided for his wife, his small son and the three siblings that came along next.
"Junrey is our lucky charm," says his father.
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