'I Have The Biggest Female Mouth In The World'

These days, people often make comments like, "Oh My God! Your mouth is so cool," or, "It makes you really unique!" But when I was 11 or 12, I didn't want to be different. If I was talking, making big expressions or eating, people's reaction to my mouth would typically be: "Woah!" So I made more of a conscious effort to keep my mouth small and not make crazy faces.

Once I did start using make-up, I never wore lipstick. I thought it made me look crazy. Instead, I'd cover my lips with concealer and would try to talk in a way that made my mouth as small as possible. Kids can be nasty and I used to get called "the fish" a lot. But now, my mouth is what sets me apart. It's almost a superpower.

Before the COVID pandemic, I was trying to be a singer and a comedian. I live outside New York City, so I was working a corporate job and going into the city five nights a week to do stand up gigs and perform with a band I was in. I really wasn't showing off my mouth then, because a comedy teacher had told me it was "too much mouth" if I did. I was still very self conscious about it.

Then, when everything shut down, I began thinking about what the heck I was going to do to be creative and entertain people. I started posting on TikTok in April 2020, just to see what happened. I shared some singing videos and some comedy, and then a trend came along where you had to share a special unique trick. I posted a video showing me making crazy faces with my mouth, and that got a couple of hundred thousand views. People began to ask questions about my mouth and I decided to lean into it.

But the post that really blew up was in the fall of 2020. There was a trending sound that people were lip syncing to and I posted a video of my own version that got more than 65,000,000 views. I had around 100,000 followers at that point, but once this video went viral, I reached 500,000 within a week.

At the beginning, I got questions like, "Your mouth's so big, how many marshmallows can you fit in?" which led into me doing challenges to see what I can actually fit into my mouth. Amongst other things, I have separately been able to fit a whole Big Mac in my mouth in one bite, a whole large McDonald's fries in one bite and fit four donuts in my mouth at once. I was also able to fit 17 mega marshmallows into my mouth and separately, 17 or 18 chicken nuggets.

Many people comment that I must have jaw problems, but, knock-on-wood, I've never had any issues. I don't know if that's because the muscles in my face are now so strong, but I feel no pain. My neck might get a little sore if I'm holding my mouth open for a long time for a photo shoot, but generally, it doesn't hurt.

The big question everyone wants to know the answer to is: why is my mouth like this? Similarly, I often get asked if everyone in my family has big mouths? Both my parents have big smiles but no one else in my family has as big a mouth as I do. I jokingly say that I have BFAM Disorder, which I made up and means Big F****** A** Mouth Disorder. But nothing happened to me, I don't have a disorder or disease, this is just the way I was born.

For a long time, people on social media were also curious as to whether I had heard from the Guinness World Records or if I had ever applied to be considered for the biggest mouth in the world. Then, Guinness World Records reached out to me at the beginning of 2021 because they had seen my TikTok and everyone was tagging them in my videos.

For humans, the category is "largest mouth gape", there isn't "longest mouth vertically" or "widest mouth", There is a male who has the title of "largest mouth gape (male)" but I don't think there was a woman who held the title before me.

I started the application process for "largest mouth gape (female)" in January and there were a lot of requirements. As well as providing identification for myself, I had to get my mouth measured by a dentist and provide their credentials. We had to use a specific caliper that I had to order and each measurement had to be taken five times. Video and photographic evidence had to be submitted along with the signatures of two witnesses and a note from my primary care physician to say that I wasn't on any sort of medication that would stretch my mouth—though I don't know what medication would do that!—and that I hadn't had any sort of surgeries that would have changed my mouth.

I got the news that I had been awarded the title officially on July 15 2021 and it was very cool to share that with my followers. My attitude was: we did it! Because all this started from social media.

I have now been able to quit my corporate job and do more of what I've always dreamt of, which is performing. I have a one-woman show that I have been doing a couple of times a month in New York City, as well as my challenge to find the biggest sandwiches around America, which I share on social media. I get to travel with that and I'm in preliminary talks about possibly doing some kind of TV show around it. I also have a podcast, so sharing my large mouth has really given me the ability to do what I love.

But if someone had told me three years ago that I would now be doing what I love, all by leaning into my biggest insecurity, I would have said there was no way that was possible. I would never have imagined that my mouth, something that people made fun of and said was weird and unattractive, would be the reason I can finally live my dream. I even feel comfortable wearing lipstick now.

I'm almost at 3,000,000 followers on TikTok now and when I sit and think about that, I feel so grateful. The best messages I get are when people say I inspire them to be themselves. Having such an amazing community supporting me is such a confidence boost. It makes me wish I had leaned in and been myself earlier in life.

I've always thought it would be really cool to go back to my hometown one day and speak at a graduation ceremony. I would like to say that I was bullied about my physical appearance and it made me insecure, so I got stuck in a 9-5 job. But as soon as I leaned into my insecurities and followed my heart, I made it into my superpower.

Samantha Ramsdell is a singer, comedian and TikTok star. You can follow her on TikTok @samramsdell5 and on Instagram @samramsdell5.

All views expressed in this article are the author's own.

As told to Jenny Haward.