Original subtitles

MAN: I do a lot of things that most people can't.

MAN #2: It's an out-of-body experience.

WOMAN: Being different is good.

You kinda wanna stick out sometimes.

[ Whistling chirp ]

WOMAN #2: It might only happen once in his life.

MAN #3: I'm a genetic freak. [ Buzzing ]

MAN #4: The moment you think that you can control nature,

you're wrong.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: 100 years ago, Robert Ripley went on a quest

to the farthest reaches of the globe,

in search of the extraordinary and unusual.

Today, the adventure continues,

searching for the world's most bizarre, astonishing secrets.

♪♪

On "Ripley's Believe It or Not!"

♪♪

Some say there's a natural order to the living world.

But look closer and you'll see strange quirks

and unbelievable truths hiding in plain sight.

I'm Bruce Campbell, and these are the stories

that break the rules of everything we thought possible.

♪♪

I am known throughout the world as the Hammerhead.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: John Ferraro should have a headache 24/7.

-Aah! -But he doesn't take the pain...

-[ Groaning ] -He doles it out.

♪♪

♪♪

True to his nickname, John "The Hammerhead" Ferraro

is as hardheaded as they come.

Hit. Aah!

CAMPBELL: But today, he's testing his skull

like never before, battling fire,

a cinder block, and a bowling ball strike,

all in one.

Believe it...or not.

[ Men vocalizing ]

♪♪

THOMAS: A lot of people ask me,

"Is he a little crazy in real life?"

And I say, "No, he's not a little crazy."

-Strike two! -"He's a lot crazy."

[ Grunting ]

I love to see people cringe.

[ Whirring ]

I just like to excite people.

♪♪

DOUGLAS: The Hammerhead, I'll tell ya, that name --

it suits him, It suits him real well.

♪♪

FERRARO: I earned that name by having

one of the hardest and strongest skulls in the world.

I'm a performing strongman and a genetic freak.

♪♪

I'm a cranium-crashin', brain-bashin',

skull-smashin' son of a bitch from Boston.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: John first discovered his ability

by accident when he was a kid.

FERRARO: I didn't realize how hard my skull was

until I actually got in a confrontation

with my younger brother, and he slammed the door on me.

I went head-first through the door,

ripped it off its hinges and cracked it in half.

And then I realized, "Wow, I do have a super-tough skull."

CAMPBELL: Turns out Hammerhead isn't just a nickname.

John really does have a thick skull.

I've been MRI'd at the Harvard Medical School in Boston,

and I have one of the thickest skulls on the planet.

CAMPBELL: The average skull thickness

for men is 6.5 millimeters, about a quarter of an inch.

Women's skulls are slightly thicker, 7.1 millimeters.

The MRI scan revealed that John's skull is 16 millimeters,

more than twice the average.

No wonder he found his way

onto the independent wrestling circuit.

♪♪

DOUGLAS: Get low, get low!

Oh, it's Hammerhead!

-What's up, what's up! -What's going on?

Beau Douglas has been a friend of mine for many years.

He owns a professional wrestling school.

Ah! Ah!

He's a great professional wrestler, a great trainer.

I have felt that head against mine,

and it's probably the hardest thing

that I've ever taken to the head.

I'm gonna bend this, but -- Just watch this.

What would you say, about 5/8ths? Alright.

I don't know, I don't know if you can do that one.

[ Laughter ] What are you -- what are you --

[ Excited chatter ] Oh, what are --

[ Crunching ] [ Gasping ]

[ Grunting ]

What the...

[ Groaning ]

[ Cheering ]

-Oh, yeah! -Yeah!

You know what? I give it to him.

The man that can bend that steel over his head is awesome.

♪♪

-[ Laughs ] -There we go! There we go!

All of you, all of you, go behind him!

Don't kill the ref.

I'm disgusted and horrified and impressed at the same time.

CAMPBELL: After a hard-fought career,

Hammerhead decided it was time for a new challenge,

and went looking to the past for inspiration.

♪♪

FERRARO: This right here is Billy Wells.

He had over 40 blocks and rocks

broken over his skull in one day.

Then also there's Andrew Hull, the man with the iron skull.

He's another one of my favorites.

This guy actually had a 300-pound boulder

smashed over his head with a sledgehammer.

CAMPBELL: And then there was Siegmund Breitbart,

a blacksmith from Poland who rose to fame

in the early 1900s, bending iron bars,

biting through chains,

even letting horses walk all over him.

♪♪

But John set out to best them all.

Ah!

FERRARO: A lot of the things that I do

are extremely, extremely dangerous,

and I wouldn't recommend them for anybody.

I concentrated on bending spikes,

having cement broken over my skull, breaking 2x4s.

And it was good, but then I started doing

more extreme feats of strength.

[ Drill grinding ] [ Screams ]

♪♪

CAMPBELL: Though John has built a successful career

on the strength of his skull,

he could soon end up shattering both.

Attempting his most dangerous feat yet,

John will support two flaming concrete patio stones

on his head, weighing 30 pounds,

while enduring a direct strike with a bowling ball.

If he misses the mark, I could be permanently damaged.

♪♪

Not a lot people can have a 12-pound bowling ball

dropped 10 feet in the air on top of their skull

and walk away from that.

Okay, go!

[ Grunts ]

♪♪

I personally don't know how he's still walking today.

♪♪

FERRARO: I love to perform,

and I always get the job done.

♪♪

That's what makes me happy.

That's what makes me feel good.

That's what relieves stress.

That, my friend -- that's gold.

♪♪

John Ferraro is known for his hard-hitting skull,

but this next man uses a gentler touch

to face an airborne army that could kill him in minutes.

Now, that's an army of darkness.

And I didn't write that.

[ Buzzing ]

♪♪

CAMPBELL: This man is on a constant quest

for his perfect queen.

I'm Luis Slayton. I'm from Donna, Texas,

and I rescue bees.

CAMPBELL: Some would say his method is madness.

SLAYTON: I'm able to go into a beehive

and just take 'em out, relocate 'em without a bee suit.

CAMPBELL: Now Luis is taking us inside the hive,

where he'll wear the bees all over his face.

Believe it...or not.

♪♪

SLAYTON: It's an out-of-body experience.

There's really no words, but...

Zen? Nirvana?

I'm going to my happy place.

I'm like the Pied Piper. I play my flute,

and they go into the box.

I respect them, they respect me.

They don't sting me to death

because they know that I'm helping them out.

♪♪

[ Cow moos ]

♪♪

CAMPBELL: A fascination with bees runs deep in Luis's blood.

SLAYTON: Beekeeping is a generational trade

that has been passed down

from our great-grandfather, to my grandfather, to us now.

My great grandfather was from a small town,

in Doctor Arroyo, located in Mexico,

where he kept bees,

and he used to manufacture wax candles

out of the beeswax to light the township.

My grandfather passed this knowledge onto me,

and I'm gonna pass this knowledge

onto my kids, and their kids.

Grab it with both hands. Good job.

See, the queen's right there.

The best piece of advice my grandfather had given to me

was just when you think you know

everything about bees, you don't.

CAMPBELL: Bees and humans have a long shared history,

dating back to ancient Egypt,

where jars of honey were found in the pharaohs' tombs.

Since then, many cultures have kept bee colonies,

harvesting honey, pollen,

and royal jelly from their hives.

But bees give us far more than that.

As the world's most essential pollinator of food crops,

they are critical to human survival.

♪♪

But that doesn't mean you want them in your house.

Time to call Luis.

CAMPBELL: Luis is on a mission to collect and domesticate

as many feral bees as he can,

in an effort to preserve the species,

and our fragile food supply, one hive at a time.

SLAYTON: What makes me different from other beekeepers is

the bare hand approach that I take

to removing these nuisance beehives.

The more humanistic approach that I have

where you're one with the hive,

where you're actually not wearing gloves.

You smoke 'em a little bit.

The smoke pacifies the bees and lets me work with them.

[ Whirring ]

I start by cutting the comb out, putting that comb into a box,

rubber banding that comb -- the comb are the babies.

For the most part, the bees are gonna follow the babies,

they're gonna follow the queen bee.

So if I got both of them, the babies and the queen bee,

I'm setting myself up for success.

Here we go, there we go, there we go...

Once the queen bee is in the box,

I put her in the cage, I kiss her, put her in the box,

and then we wait for the magic to happen.

All the bees go to the box.

CAMPBELL: Luis has spent years perfecting this technique.

Now, he's taking it a step further,

wearing his bees on his face.

SLAYTON: Beware, it's very dangerous.

You can die of multiple stings

and certain complications that can arise along the way.

He's gonna put I don't know how many

bees on top of his body.

That makes me nervous.

I'm sorry, I'm nervous right now.

SLAYTON: You're playing with nature,

and nature has its own way of being.

And the moment you think that you can control nature,

you're wrong.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: In an effort to bring attention

to the plight of his beloved insects,

Luis is training to break the world record

for most bees worn on the body.

But with 250,000 stingers within firing range,

one wrong move could cost Luis his life.

♪♪

It's a head-to-head sexy combat.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Most of us will swat one bee if it gets too close.

What happens if you're surrounded by 250,000?

For Texan named Luis Slayton, the answer is,

take off all your clothes and kiss the queen.

♪♪

[ Buzzing ]

When I put them on my body, in essence what I'm doing is,

I'm doing an artificial swarm.

I'm making them swarm into my face.

♪♪

[ Buzzing ]

I take the queen out of the box,

I put her on my face or I put her

on the designated part of my body

that I want them to follow,

and just let the magic happen.

And you stand there and you just let them fly.

[ Whooshes ]

[ Buzzing ]

There's a little crawling noise that they make.

[ Imitates crawl ]

They're gnawing at your skin.

♪♪

When I'm doing the bee-wear,

I'm dealing with a wild animal.

And I'm not just dealing with one wild animal.

Once you start, you can't stop.

♪♪

I think they understand me and I understand them,

and I know that the moment that I take them

for granted, they'll remind me, and it's

a humbling experience to get stung by them.

They keep you humble.

CAMPBELL: Luis gets stung a lot, and it is toxic.

For a man his size, anything up to

around 1,500 stings is survivable.

Beyond that, he could go into shock.

And without immediate medical treatment, Luis could die.

But as long as Luis treats the queen with respect,

and as long his assistant keeps the smoke flowing

to keep the bees calm, he should get away

with just a few hundred stings.

But if one wrong move sets the bees off,

the swarm will quickly end his life.

SLAYTON: I'm becoming one with the bees.

♪♪

Just knowing that you have all them beings around you,

it's -- it's nirvana.

♪♪

It's an out-of-body experience.

I no longer feel the stings, then I'm just --

it's like I'm somebody else,

and I'm looking from the outside in.

[ Buzzing ]

♪♪

[ Buzzing ]

♪♪

What started off as being a hobby/passion

ended up just taking over my life.

I'm living the American dream.

♪♪

Luis has an uncanny way with bees.

But the fact remains, nature can be unpredictable.

Sometimes, it throws a curve ball

and produces something, or someone,

truly extraordinary.

♪♪

My name is Chuy.

They call me the Wolf Man.

♪♪

[ Speaking Spanish ]

CAMPBELL: Chuy Fajardo and his family

are in for their monthly haircuts.

But there is only so much a barber can do for them.

That's because they grow hair on almost every surface.

Believe it...or not.

♪♪

Jesús Chuy Fajardo Aceves was born

with thick hair covering the face.

It's an inherited genetic disorder called hypertrichosis,

and it is so rare that there are

only 50 documented cases in the world.

Most of them, close relatives.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

CAMPBELL: The Aceves family can trace

the condition back almost 400 years.

It's believed they're related to Petrus Gonsalvus,

a 16th century Spaniard said to have inspired

the famous tale "Beauty and the Beast."

♪♪

♪♪

MAN: The Wolf Boy will now attempt

to walk all five swords,

for the walk of death!

♪♪

I think they're sexy, I think they're sensual.

♪♪

[ Quacking ] The male duck penis

is actually corkscrew shaped.

♪♪

♪♪

Mother Nature always seems to have

some tricks up her sleeve --

genetic anomalies that have to be seen to be believed.

Or...not.

♪♪

[ Applause ] MAN: Ladies and gentlemen,

the Wolf Boy will now attempt to walk all five swords.

♪♪

[ Audience gasping ]

♪♪

[ Audience gasping ]

[ Murmuring ]

[ Audience gasps ]

Ladies and gentlemen, please howl like the wolf

for the Wolf Boy! [ Applause ]

CAMPBELL: Aceves family patriarch, Chuy,

has found a way to turn his difference

into an advantage.

[ Slides click ]

CAMPBELL: Not every member of the family is as hairy as Chuy,

and not all of them accepted their hairiness at first.

[ Conversation in Spanish ]

♪♪

CAMPBELL: The family still battles prejudice,

but following Chuy's example, they refuse to hide.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

While Chuy has traveled the world

trying to support the family,

his sister Lilia runs a grocery store in Aguascalientes.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

[ Speaking Spanish ]

[ Conversation in Spanish ]

♪♪

♪♪

Even with so many researchers

digging into the secrets of the natural world,

there's so much we don't know,

and so much you can't believe is real.

Case in point, what goes on behind the scenes

when it's time for animals to...

reproduce.

[ Groaning ]

[ Quacking ]

Evolution has graced the animal kingdom

with some downright baffling adaptations

in the mating department.

♪♪

[ Grunting ]

[ Romantic music plays ]

[ Music stops ]

♪♪

Wild animal sex can be like a house of horrors.

Body parts you've never imagined...

tangled mates trying to punch through each other's guts...

an eager male dissolved into a brainless sex organ.

Just some of the five most bizarre

sex strategies in the animal kingdom.

Believe it...

or not. [ Barking ]

♪♪

I'm a biology professor

at the University of Texas in Austin,

and I focus on behavior, evolution

of animal communication, and the brain.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: Every species on the planet is driven to reproduce.

But males and females come at it from different angles.

CUMMINGS: Sperm, it's a small little cell.

You can make millions at a time.

Eggs are much bigger.

Females have to shunt a lot of resources

into producing big, juicy eggs.

So, males wanna mate often,

females wanna mate less.

CAMPBELL: This means males usually have

the wildest behaviors and weirdest body parts.

[ Sniffs ]

♪♪

Males are trying to get the attention of females.

[ Clucking ]

They're really showy, they spin around,

and they flash and they do a dance.

[ Chirping ]

CAMPBELL: But of all these mating rituals,

there are a handful that top the list of most bizarre.

[ Calling ]

♪♪

The lyrebird sings and flashes his feathers

to attract females.

But it serenades desired mates in a very unusual way.

♪♪

CUMMINGS: The lyrebird male.

He can mimic not only the sounds of other lyrebirds,

or other bird species...

[ Cawing ]

...but manmade noises.

Car alarms... [ Wailing ]

...and chain saws. [ Mimics chain saw ]

So this little syrinx in his little bird throat

is capable of mimicking things

that are not natural, almost perfectly.

[ Whistling chirp ]

♪♪

CAMPBELL: And then there's your everyday duck...

[ Quacking ] ...and a battle of the sexes

playing out just under the surface.

Number four,

duck anatomy.

The male duck penis is actually corkscrew shaped.

And interestingly, the female vaginal tract,

it goes the opposite way.

She actually can impede the progress

of unwanted sexual attempts.

[ Quacks ]

CAMPBELL: Male sage-grouse have evolved

their own strange anatomy for wooing the ladies.

Number three,

bulbous chest sacs.

♪♪

CUMMINGS: The sage-grouse, they have these air sacs

that are actually just extensions of their esophagus.

[ Whooshes, pops ]

They'll bounce them around,

and they make all bizarre types of sounds,

from clicks and whistles and pops and coos.

[ Pops ] And some sounds that we can't even hear

because they're subsonic.

Really intense male-male competition.

It's a head-to-head, sexy combat.

[ Gobbling sound ]

CAMPBELL: All flatworms have male and female sexual parts.

Any individual flatworm can act

as either a male or a female.

But, they fight about it.

Number two,

the dagger battle.

♪♪

All of these flatworms have both male and female parts.

These white areas, right here,

they're called daggers.

They actually punch a slight hole

through the body cavity of the other flatworm,

and transfer sperm.

♪♪

Each one's trying to play the role of the male.

Whoever is successful first and got to play the male role,

you get a bigger bang for your buck when you use your sperm.

CAMPBELL: Suitors vying for the same mate

can battle in spectacular fashion.

But believe me, this next fella

has a much more shocking conflict,

and a sexual strategy so strange,

it could become the stuff of your nightmares.

♪♪

♪♪

The natural world can be just plain weird,

as biologist Dr. Molly Cummings knows well.

She's counting down some of the oddest mating rituals

of the animal kingdom.

Someone's got to.

We've already seen some pretty bizarre hook-ups,

from fencing flatworms and curly duck penises

to masterful mimics and puffy chest sacs.

Now for our number one.

♪♪

Angler fish live very deep in the ocean,

maybe a thousand meters deep.

And down there it's incredibly dark.

It's huge, very spacious.

There's no way you can predict where you might

run into a member of the opposite sex.

What looks like an appendage

is actually a male of the same species.

There's angler fish who never encounter

another one of their own kind for their entire lives.

He is completely wired to maximize that opportunity.

It might only happen once in his life.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: The male bites into the female's flesh

and the two animals fuse together,

his bloodstream connecting to hers.

His organs all dissolve, except for his testes.

He'll get all his nutrients and oxygen from her blood.

That blood also delivers hormones that signal

when she releases her eggs.

This triggers what is left of, quote, "him,"

to release sperm into the water at the same time.

CUMMINGS: And he becomes this testicle appendage to the female

for the rest of his life.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: Even in the alien world of the deep ocean,

it is super strange.

♪♪

[ Grunting ]

[ Chuckles dryly ] Okay, is it over?

Ah.

Some things in life you just can't un-see.

Other things, you can't take your eyes off of.

Like this woman.

She wins, hands down.

♪♪

Ayanna Williams considers herself an artist.

But her work is so unusual,

it draws stares wherever she goes.

♪♪

What do you do in the bathroom?

Same thing you do.

You just take it and go like this. [ Laughs ]

♪♪

My name's Ayanna Williams.

I have the world's record for the longest nails

on a pair of hands for a female.

[ Laughter ]

♪♪

CAMPBELL: Retired manicurist Ayanna Williams

has been growing out her nails for 26 years.

Her babies require more attention

than a lot of real children.

♪♪

And not only do they dominate her lifestyle,

they could be reshaping her body itself.

Believe it...or not.

♪♪

[ Whirring ] [ Opera music playing ]

Ayanna's nails range from 27 to 36 inches long -- each.

[ Blows air ]

For a sum total in excess of 20 feet,

the height of an adult giraffe.

They are her crowning glory.

♪♪

Growing my nails, it's a passion.

♪♪

My nails are still growing.

As a matter of fact, they seem to be growing faster

now that they're longer.

♪ Can you dig it? ♪

CAMPBELL: Ayanna's fascination with long nails

began at an early age.

♪ Can -- can -- can -- can -- can ♪

♪♪

WILLIAMS: As a child, I saw my mother grow her nails.

Of course, they were nothing extreme like this.

It was a challenge to myself to grow my nails.

One day I woke up, and here they are!

♪♪

I think they're sexy, I think they're sensual,

and they make you different.

♪♪

When I paint my nails, usually it takes me

about -- maybe about a week.

If I painted my nails with nail polish,

I would need at least two bottles

and that's gonna only do one coat.

So I probably need about four.

But I use acrylic paint now,

it's much faster.

CAMPBELL: Ayanna has captured the record for

longest nails on a female,

but the overall record remains out of reach.

♪♪

I know of a man who grew his nails for 66 years.

I have to give him his props for being brave enough

to even grow his nails to those lengths.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: Shridhar Chillal from India

won the record for longest nails on one hand.

Five nails reaching 30 feet.

In 2018 he made a special trip to the U.S.

To cut the nails off in a Ripley's ceremony.

Nearly seven decades of growth gone, in a matter of minutes.

It had to feel liberating.

Still...

the damage was done.

♪♪

If you grow your nails too long,

they make your hand deformed because of the weight

pulling down on the nails.

CAMPBELL: Just one of the challenges Ayanna faces.

There are so many limitations to having these nails.

♪♪

I have to have someone to help me all the time.

Sometimes I can't pull my pants up.

I've had 'em so long, I wonder if my nails

are a burden to my family.

I'm happy to help my aunt with anything,

whenever she asks.

I'm right there, best believe it.

♪♪

WILLIAMS: I've traveled, I'm in magazines,

people know me all around the world.

So it's time that I do something else.

CAMPBELL: Has the time finally come for Ayanna

to get out the clippers?

♪♪

♪♪

After nearly 30 years of growing her nails,

Ayanna Williams is toying with a big change.

♪♪

WILLIAMS: I'm getting to that point.

Cut 'em off. [ Laughs ]

♪♪

If someone offered me maybe $25,000 right now,

I'll take it.

CAMPBELL: Until then, she's holding onto her title

with both hands.

♪♪

WILLIAMS: They're the longest in the world,

and I like the attention I get.

I like that. [ Laughs ]

I'm with a world record holder right now.

♪♪

WILLIAMS: Long live the long-nailed goddess,

the queen of nails, royal hotness --

I am that and more. Me, the queen.

Don't get it twisted.

♪♪

Ayanna Williams grew what nature gave her

to extraordinary lengths.

Nature made this next guy extraordinary

right outta the gate.

♪♪

My name is Jeff Dabe.

I'm 55 years old, do a lot of things that most people can't.

CAMPBELL: Jeff Dabe was born different.

People are usually afraid of him...

until they start talking to him,

and then they realize he's just a big, gentle giant.

♪♪

♪♪

[ Birds chirping ]

CAMPBELL: Daily chores come easy to Jeff.

He picks up hay bales and throws 'em

just like they're little candy bars.

I grew up on a farm with beef cows and pigs.

So I can do all the chores, I could pull the calves around.

♪♪

I knew I was a little stronger and bigger

than average kids my size.

I probably noticed, I don't know, three or four years old.

Goofing around with the neighborhood kids,

I could pick stuff up they couldn't.

My parents, they sent me down to Rochester.

There were like 50, 60 different doctors there

trying to figure out what I had, or why I had it.

They did a bunch of tests and studies

and they never did come up with any conclusions.

It's a gift to me.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: Wherever he goes, Jeff gets a lot of stares.

GINA: When I first saw Jeff,

I was overwhelmed with his size and everything.

CAMPBELL: At five-foot-nine,

Jeff is the height of your average American male.

So much else is off the charts.

GINA: His hands are just humongous.

[ Laughs ]

CAMPBELL: The average hand size measured across the knuckles

is 3.56 inches for males.

Jeff's is 7.4 inches,

more than double the size.

GINA: He just makes everybody look like a child, you know,

when they compare hands.

CAMPBELL: The average size of a man's wedding ring?

8.

Jeff dons one the size of a bracelet.

I did have a custom wedding ring made, which is a size 30.

A quarter would be like a normal sized ring.

♪♪

CAMPBELL: While Jeff makes his living with heavy machinery,

he does have a sideline that puts his unique features

to work.

JEFF: My senior year in high school,

we were doing arm wrestling. I end up beating all the kids.

I also beat the adults, and I liked it.

It just kinda kept growing from there.

CAMPBELL: In the early '90s Jeff turned pro

and rose to the sport's top ranks.

[ Groans ]

♪♪

But in the late '90s,

in the midst of a tough matchup, he felt something pop

in his right elbow.

I don't know what went,

but that's as far as I can straighten it now.

So I just leave it alone and keep pulling with the left.

WOMAN: Come on, Jeff!

He's just been going crazy, just smokin' everybody.

[ Laughter, cheering ]

Jeff for the win!

CAMPBELL: The average male forearm circumference

is 24.2 centimeters.

Jeff, who's never lifted weights,

has forearms that measure 50.8 centimeters.

That's 19 inches,

almost as big around as the average human head.

♪♪

Right now I hold the North American Championship belt

out of Canada.

I just won a four-way super match out in California

for the UAL.

I just also won Nationals in Michigan.

So I guess I'm holding my own right now.

I've had the nickname Popeye since high school.

It's all right, I don't mind. it's a good nickname to have.

♪♪

Jeff found a way to turn his appendages into assets.

The same goes for a natural born wonder in Florida.

She isn't bowing down to anyone,

'cause she's a tall drink of water.

♪♪

Jeff Dabe, the real-life Popeye,

is perfectly suited to tossing hay bales

and burning up the arm wrestling circuit.

But when nature makes you different,

it's not always so easy to find your niche.

♪♪

This 25-year-old was born into a family of giants.

My mom is six-foot-one,

my dad's six-foot-two.

But where it gets really tall is my grandpa

was six-foot-eight.

Now my younger cousin is taller than I am.

My name is Holly Burt.

I stand at six-foot-five.

CAMPBELL: It's not her height alone

that makes her so special.

And I'm the female with the longest legs in America.

My legs are 49.5 inches.

♪♪

There wasn't really a point in my life

where I wasn't tall.

I mean, even out of the womb I think I was 25 inches.

♪♪

I grew up in Jacksonville, Florida.

Was a really small beach town.

When I hit first grade, I was taller

than my first grade teacher.

I was never picked for the high school dance,

just because I was a little bit taller.

[ Laughs ] Sorry, a lot -- a lot taller.

Alright.

♪♪

Kids are mean, and it really hurt sometimes.

Walking past a teenager and hearing them whisper,

it sucked.

There would be days where I would just go home

and just wish I was normal.

CAMPBELL: And then Holly found the one place

where she could blend in.

♪♪

The turning point from not really liking my height

to the point where I really embrace it,

is definitely when I moved to New York City.

♪♪

Just seeing that there's so many different walks of life,

and getting out of that really small town bubble,

it really felt great.

I get asked probably 15 times, 20 times every day

about how tall I am.

CAMPBELL: Holly's legs alone are over four feet long,

the same height as the average eight-year-old.

♪♪

It was not just the big city life that comforted her.

In 2016, she was signed to a modeling contract.

HOLLY: Mainly it's just for tall girl apparel companies.

So anything from athletic wear

to your normal everyday wear.

Okay. Shuffle, kick.

Pow. Good.

Speaking for all the tall girls out there,

if you're feeling down, like if you're in

middle school, elementary school,

it's only gonna get better.

Being different is good.

You kinda wanna stick out sometimes.

Feels pretty empowering.

There is an order to nature,

but rules are made to be broken.

And those who push past the boundaries

make the world a weirdly entertaining place.

♪♪

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