If you're 5' 6", just stay home. Don't pretend you're 5' 8" or 5' 9". If you want to be a beauty model, I guess that's fine, you can do glamour, but you're not going to do runway. If you're over 29 - 26, even - I would suggest you work regionally and not try to work nationally.
I'm never hard on people just because they annoy me on the show. I'm not emotional when I'm professional. Do I think there are people on the show who need to go home sooner than they do? Yes. I do. but I'm there to be professional and to be a judge and to give them my advice and my help and I take my job really seriously.