As the Guinness World Records team puts it, Samantha Ramsdell is every dentist’s dream come true.
The Connecticut resident, 31, recently set a Guinness World Record for having the largest mouth gape (for a female).
Her mouth gape measures 6.52 centimetres, or two and a half inches. When measured across, it reaches more than 10cm, or four inches. That means Ramsdell can fit an entire green apple in her mouth, can bite through four single stacked cheeseburgers, and can even fit an entire large-sized portion of French fries in her mouth.
“My whole life I’ve been so insecure about my mouth … now I celebrate it. I’ve turned one of my biggest flaws into my biggest assets. What makes you unique is your superpower and I hope this only inspires others to embrace what makes them different and never be afraid to be yourself,” Ramsdell said in a post on Instagram.
Growing up, Ramsdell was often bullied by other children and given nicknames such as “big bass mouth”. Since no one in her family had a mouth like hers, it eventually became her defining characteristic.
So when she created her TikTok account, she started gaining popularity for her unique plus-size pucker.
“At first, I was like, well … am I too old to be on TikTok? But it was the one thing I could do right now to keep me busy and keep me creative, so I started doing some singing, some of my comedy stuff, and I did one comedy video where I made this crazy face, and the children of TikTok were like, ‘What happened to your face?!’”
During the pandemic, her legion of followers grew exponentially, especially after Ramsdell started posting videos consuming food – from sandwiches to pastries – in a single bite. Her videos include stuffing three doughnuts in her mouth, or taking requests to eat two at a time. She now has more than 1.7 million followers on the platform.
It was her TikTok family that encouraged her to apply for a Guinness World title.
“Being 31, and being able to get a record for something that really I was so insecure about, something that I wanted to keep so small, it’s great because now it’s like one of the biggest, best things about me,” she says.
She hopes her record will encourage others to embrace features that make them unique.
“If I had advice for anyone who had a large body part, or something really unique, and they wanted to go for the Guinness World Records title, I would say do it. It’s your superpower, it is a thing that makes you special and different from everyone else walking around.”
