If there’s a woman in the world with a bigger tongue than Portland, Oregon, resident Jenny DuVander, Guinness World Records doesn’t know about her.
DuVander is the new record holder for the largest tongue circumference (female) in the world.
Guinness says her tongue has a circumference of 5.21 inches, making it bigger than a soda can.
She says her son urged her to get in touch with Guinness after they were looking at the 2023 Guinness Book of World Records together and they saw the male record holder—West Virginia man Braydon McCullough, whose tongue has a 6.3-inch circumference.
“My record is definitely inspired by his love of facts and human abilities,” DuVander says of her son, per KOIN.
She says the subject of her tongue usually comes up when people are comparing what tongue tricks they can do. “I also play the flute, and a strong tongue is pretty useful for playing fast notes,” she says.
“When you articulate a note on a flute, they actually call it tonguing.”
DuVander says she can touch her nose with her tongue—and her daughter has the same ability.
“Tongues aren’t exactly gorgeous, are they?” she says. “But, they are pretty cool. They’re pure muscle and so agile. When you think about it, the tongue is the only muscle that’s free to move around like that.
We use it all the time to speak and eat. It moves around all day and never gets tired.”