With a 13 inch right foot and 12.7 inch left foot, Tanya Herbert has broken the Guinness World Record for the largest feet of any living human female. The 39-year-old's feet are so big that her shoes have to be specially-made.
The Texan found out that she was the new world record holder last month, when Guinness confirmed that her UK size 15 feet were the largest of any living woman's. At 6ft 9, Tanya is just three inches short of the current record holder for tallest woman, 7ft Turkish Rumeysa Gelgi.
Tanya said: "My mum was 6ft in and my dad is 6ft 4in so it was inevitable I was going to be tall. My parents were supportive growing up so I didn’t think of being tall as a bad thing.
"I never remember getting bullied or anything like that for my height, and my friends made sure I was loved and liked. As I got older, I would buy some of the largest shoes I could find online and extend them out longer and make them wider so that they would fit my feet."
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For much of her life, she only had the option to wear men’s shoes as those were the only shoes she could find in her size. She found ways to create her own, feminine, shoes by making them longer and wider so that they would fit her feet.
She added: "I extend women's shoes myself so they fit my feet, or, if I shop in the men's section, I drop down to either a size 16 or 17- depending on the brand. I can find some men's shoes at that size online - but when they arrive, I personalise them to make them look more feminine."
Tanya went viral on TikTok at the start of this year for her big feet, and it was people commenting that encouraged her to go for the record. So, in April 2022, she got in touch with Guinness World Records, who came out and measured her feet.
It took until October to verify her measurements and officially confirm that she had beat the record - previously held by Julie Felton, with US women's size 15.5 feet.
Tanya hopes that with her record she can prompt shoe manufacturing companies to be more inclusive by carrying a larger range of sizes, at a more affordable cost for women.
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