A woman with the world's largest feet that measure size 18 says she finds shoes "impossible" to find. Tanya Herbert, 39, has to extend shop-bought footwear herself in order to make sure they fit.
Tanya holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest feet on a living person (female). Her right foot measures 33.1 cm (13.03 in) and her left foot measures 32.5 cm (12.79 in) - meaning that her shoe size is a US women’s size 18.
She also stands at 6ft 9in - only three inches shorter than the tallest woman living, in Turkey, Rumeysa Gelgi, who is 7ft 0.7in. Tanya said: "The most difficult part of having big feet is trying to find shoes that fit.
"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 has always been much taller and had much larger feet than her peers, and by high school her feet had reached the record-breaking size they are today. 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.
But through social media, Tanya was able to connect with other women encountering the same problem. She found ways to create her own, feminine, shoes by making them longer and wider so that they would fit her feet.
Tanya said: "Growing up I was always the tallest around. My mum was 6 ft 5 in and my dad is 6 ft 4 in 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."
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 visited her and measured her feet.
It took until October for Guinness 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, from Houston, Texas, 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.
She said: "You can find men’s size shoes that are my size, but trying to find women’s shoes is impossible or extremely unaffordable. Women with size 12 or 13 struggle trying to find shoes, and I’m size 18.
"Being a world record holder may present opportunities that I may not have been offered beforehand. I want to be a spark to the shoe manufacturing industry."
