“How Rare Are You?”: Woman Shares Random But Interesting Genetic Facts About Humans And Here’re 30 Of The Best Ones Interview
Human beings are awesome. And the closer you look at them, the more intriguing surprises you’re bound to find. What’s especially interesting are our genes and how they’re expressed. You might not even know it, but your genetics might make you rarer than you might think! Let's have a look at some of these rare traits.
Florida-based video content creator Lexi Slaven, who also goes by her internet pseudonym Yolkfather, has created a whole bunch of videos that are as educational as they are entertaining. In her ‘How rare are you?’ TikTok video series, she examines how rare certain genetic traits really are. Starting from the basics like red hair and blue eyes and moving on to jaw-dropping things like actually being able to sneeze with your eyes open. (Now that’s a superpower we might be interested in if it turns out we can’t actually fly!)
Check out some of Lexi’s most captivating rare facts about human beings and upvote the ones that left you surprised, Pandas. Oh, and we’d love to hear if you’ve got any of these traits or can do anything mentioned in this list. For instance, I’ve got blue eyes and that means that I’m part of barely 8 percent of the entire population of the world with that fact alone!
Bored Panda reached out to Lexi to learn more about her videos and herself as a content creator. Scroll down for the full interview.
More info: TikTok | Instagram | YouTube
@yolkfather How rare are your traits? #greenscreen #foryou #funfacts #learnontiktok #mindblown
♬ original sound - Lexi Slaven
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I was very curious to learn more about the inspiration behind the super popular 'How rare are you?' videos. "My inspiration behind this series was to try to get people to embrace what makes them unique!" Lexi told Bored Panda. "I think it resonated with so many people because I tried to include many different things so that hopefully whoever was watching would be able to find something that they could relate to," she said she was as inclusive as she could be.
Bored Panda was interested to hear a bit about what it's like to have such a large following on TikTok. Lexi opened up that it's been a life-changing experience. "It has changed my life! It still shocks me that there are so many people who love and support me and care about what I have to say. It’s given me confidence in who I am and has made me a better person because I know that I have younger fans who look up to me and I want to be a good role model for them."
35% of the population has no wisdom teeth. And I'm jealous of you guys because you never have to go through the pain.
I have wisdom teeth, but I'm the only person I know who not only has all four of them, but had them come through perfectly straight with no pain. So I'm lucky in a different way I guess. :)
Lexi explained that she followed in the footsteps of her favorite creators and wanted to become a positive role model for others. "When I was younger, I watched a lot of YouTube videos and I had creators that I looked up to. Sometimes if I was having a bad day these videos were like an escape for me and they would cheer me up. I want to be that person for someone else," she said.
"My followers always suggest topics for me to make videos on and I try to listen to them as much as I can!"
Lexi is a force to be reckoned with on TikTok. She has a whopping 2.4 million followers on the platform. Meanwhile, she’s collected just shy of 100 million (that’s right!) likes on TikTok. That just goes to show that the content she creates and her personality shine through in the endless stream of videos on the platform.
The TikToker creates videos about fun facts (that's where her videos about genetic traits come in), does storytimes, shares various theories, and does a bit of everything else.
Heterochromia which means having two different colored eyes is found in less than 1% of the population.
My ex husband was left handed, red headed, and had heterochromia, basically a unicorn....and as we all know unicorns are arseholes!
According to World Atlas, the vast majority of the world’s population has brown eyes. However, it’s incredibly difficult to pinpoint the exact number. The best guess is that anywhere from 70 to 79 percent of human beings have brown eyes. Meanwhile, from 8 to 10 percent of people have blue eyes.
Even rarer than blue eyes are hazel and amber eyes, with around 5 percent of the global population (that’s 1 in 20 people on the street) having them. Gray eyes make up barely 3 percent of the total while green ones make up only 2 percent. The rarest eye color is red/violet, with less than a single percent of people having such eyes. Similarly, less than 1 percent of people have heterochromia which means that both of your eyes are different colors.
20% of the population sneezes when they go outside in the sun.
It's called ACHOO syndrome. Autosomal-dominant Compulsive Helio Opthalmic Outburst syndrome. Someone worked hard on that acronym lol.
Blue eyes, only 8% of the world population.
Really? I know so many people with blue eyes but then I guess the biggest populations are southern hemisphere so it makes sense the blues would be outnumbered.
The field of genetics continues to advance. Even facts that we took for granted (remember those biology lessons back at school) are now being updated and revised. For instance, scientists used to think that your eye color was determined by only two genes, one from each parent. You’re likely to remember doing some exercises in class where you’d see what color eyes a child would have if one parent has e.g. two dominant brown-eyed genes and one has recessive blue-eyed genes.
However, Healthline points out that we’re now aware that things are far more complicated. “Your eye color is determined by several genes that control melanin production in your iris. Darker eyes have a lot of melanin, while light eyes have only a little.”
Red hair, less than 2% of the population.
Gray eyes, only 1% of the population. Side note, some people say that gray eyes are just a form of blue eyes, but I respectfully disagree.
10% of the world's population has something called Morton's toe, which is where your second toe is longer than your big toe.
Healthline explains that brown eyes look dark to us because they have a lot of light-absorbing melanin. Meanwhile, blue eyes have the least amount of melanin, so they reflect the most light. What this means is that reality isn’t as simple as what a lot of us were used to during biology class.
“Because you inherit genes from your parents, it’s likely that your eyes will be similar in color to one or both of your parents. But it’s also possible for you to have brown eyes, even if both of your parents have blue eyes.”
Only 35% of people have perfect vision without glasses.
I think it's other factors. When I was in school in a rural area, absolutely no one had eye defects even after medical checkups. Then I moved to another school in an urban area and 75% of the class has a eye defect of some sort
Freckles, 5% of the population.
Only 14% of the population can make cloverleaf shape with their tongue.
Only 2% of the world's population has naturally blond hair.
22% of people can wiggle their ears, but only around 18% of people can wiggle both of them.
Only around 25% of the population has dimples.
I have a dimple on my right cheek, my husband has one on his left cheek. And our daughter has dimples on both cheeks :)
32% of people have something called a Hitchhiker's thumb. Where when you put your thumb up, it can actually bend backwards.
I can do that. I love freaking people out with it.
About 1% of the population has a double line of eyelashes.
33% of the population has a widow's peak.
35% of the population can gleek and 1% can do it on command. If you didn't know, that's basically where you can shoot spit from underneath your tongue.
20% of the population is double jointed.
EDS zebra here- not only hyper mobile but dislocate like 10-20 times a day.
Vitaligo less than 1% of the population.
Only 3% of the population has Xs on their palms. The critics of palmistry, these people are considered extremely lucky.
I have an X with one line very faint. Am I kinda sorta faintly lucky? Because I sure could use some really good luck right now.
Less than 10% of people only have one dimple.
Note: this post originally had 45 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Just checked and yes I am still very bloody inside so I’ll say that I am still very rare
Hahaha
I one green eye and one grey eye red hair.
Stop checking before you stop being bloody inside.
Luckily I'm home alone so no one saw me.
Couldn’t find anything on the list, could you?
I've got blue eyes, can flare my nostrils, got hitchhikers thumbs and can raise both eyebrows.......however I can't do maths very well so I have no idea what percentage of people those combined traits puts me in with. Can't have everything. Does that make me a superhero? "Slightly different to Average-Man". Marvel, DC give me a call.
Congratulations Bill, you're a unicorn!
*Everyone reading this post actually trying some of the "actionable" rarities*
That was fun. Thanks Bored Panda!
And you know what?!!! There's only one of you! You're a special snowflake just like everyone else!
We really are, aren't we? Happy little unique peas in a pod 😍
Unless you're a twin.
I have pectus excavatum, a condition in which a person's breastbone is sunken into his or her chest. (not me in the picture, but it's similar). torax-exca...ae294a.jpg
Okay let's list this... Red hair, blue eyes that turn green blue sometimes for some reason, dimples, lots and lots of freckles born with them, ambidextrous, sneeze with my eyes open, fold my tongue, clover thingy with my tongue, whistle, missing the polmaris muscle thing, I can gleek, and funnily enough I had gap teeth that naturally went away lol. I'm a strange cocktail 🤔 Edit: Also just realised while looking in the mirror I have a widows peak lol
You are probably the uniquest.
And with almost eight billion people on earth, having a 0,0000001% rarity means that there are almost 10 people like you. With a 0,001% rarity that are already 100 000!
100% of the people who read this post fact-checked at least 1 claim.
Or at least should have. ;-)
I am not confident those percentages are completely accurate
I am reasonably sure they aren't.
Right? I mean they say 10% are left handed and 8.3% have a counter clockwise swirl in their hair and us more common than left handedness. Someone has their numbers wrong!🤷
Well that is possible tho Destiney
I have a few rarities, but like most everyone, I'm pretty average overall.
color blind - 8% Aphantasia - 3%
I recently discovered that I have Aphantasia. I was never aware that I was any different than anyone else. It's made me sad.
You're not alone Anna, that was like reading a comment I had written and had no memory of! I can say exactly the same thing about myself as you have done there.
But your brain is used to compensate that. You can be creative as anyone else.
I wonder why people, including myself, feel such a strong need to be special.
We all want to be unique/special. And normal. 😂
Children and adolescents just wanna be like everyone else (their peers) and when they become an adult, all they want to do is be unique.
98.5% of people love to believe they are rare or unique. You are less rare now.
How rare are eyes that change colour, have central heterochromia that's a brown ring and also have partial heterochromia that's a grayish blue spot?
Did you know that 99% of statistics are made up? ;-)
I have 12/30 of these. I feel special :)
Dude, me too!
Only 5% of the population can make up facts on command.
What about winking?!?! I can't wink to save my life!
According to this, I'm a unicorn. I can raise one eyebrow, can flare my nostrils at will, I have dark strawberry blonde hair, grey eyes, can whistle, fold my tongue in half, have 'hitchhiker's thumbs', can 'gleek' (but not on command), have Xes on my palms, 'Morton's Toe', am missing a Palmaris Longus muscle on both arms, and have a double row of eyelashes. No idea what the chances are of having all of those at once. Though honestly, I'd think of myself more of being a genetic freak :P
You are a very special unicorn, go you! :D
What the f is strawberry blonde
AB- Blood Type 1% (I‘m in)
Let's hope you never need packed cells though! Also if you have any antibodies its gonna be a tough time!
I know :(
Ok how many of us tried to lick their elbow??? Spoiler alert--I can't.
That's a sign of a different kind of special 😂😉
Only about 0.0245% of people have the same combination of traits as I do.
We are all spezjul snowflakes!
I can flare my nostrils, wiggle one n both my ears, sneeze in sun, ambidextrous, widowspeak, i can whistle with lips n fingers as well, and 6/6 eye sight
So... does anyone else have the ability to fold, roll and make a clover with their tongue? I have yet to meet anyone who can do all 3. . . Am I a unicorn, or an odd lizard?
12 out of 30.....so I guess not all that special.
I HAVE LIKE ALMOST ALL OF THESE THINGS OMGGGGG
So, natural redhead, blue eyes, covered in freckles, dimple on my left cheek (but not the right), gap between my 2 front bottom teeth, and no wisdom teeth; can gleek, wiggle both ears, flare my nostrils, whistle, and fold my tongue. And here I thought I was just like everyone else, lol
According to this list, I'm a whole 'nother species.
What about feet types
Yeah.. Don't believe all of them... Also, I must be super rare because I'm part of the 30%, 10%, 30%, 2%, 35%, 14%,14%, 20% and 5%!
I have green eyes and dimples and I'm ambidextrous and can lift one eyebrow and flare my nostrils. Am I the rarest person on earth??
I have a tiny hole above my ear, Palmaris Longinus muscles in both my hands, can raise both eyebrows and have only one dimple. Please help me calculate I suck at math.
I have a muscle above my upper lip. It allows me to "curl up" or "fold" my lip. Unfortunately it's not cute like wiggling your nose or ears (I can do that too). It kinda looks like someone chopped your lip off and it's just raw flesh (rich red of the mouth). Great for freaking people out though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Seriously what the hell was the point of that muscle? So weird
I have a double/bifid Uvula which apparently only 2% of the global population have
The intro mentions sneezing with your eyes open, but does not give a stat. But I can do it!
Let’s see, I get the sun sneezing thing, I have green eyes, freckles, can raise either eyebrow, have the genes for red hair, I can wiggle my ears and I have a Morton’s toe…such a unique snowflake I am!
I, as with pretty much everyone else in the world, am 0.000000013% rare.
Me: born with vitilgo, central heterochromia, ambidextrous, can raise both eyebrows. Dang didn't know I was so rare
Also have 1 dimple
Idk if anyone else has this but my second and third toes on both feet are “webbed” in a way. I can’t separate them. They are almost “fused together” does anyone else have this??
I'm left handed, I can flare my nostrils, I can raise one eyebrow, I'm left-handed but also ambidextrous, I have Morton's toe, naturally a blond and I'm an Aquarius. So I am a little bit rare.
I'm a grab bag of recessive genes.
Me: Gray eyes, left-handed, ambidextrous at some things, can raise one eyebrow, can flare nostrils, can wiggle one ear (used to be able to wiggle both, individually), can whistle, have one arched fingerprint. So I wonder how many of these attributes tend to cluster.
I have most of these. I must be rare as a m**o.
I wonder what % of adults can digest dairy without any issues. I've heard it's a small number and I have this mutant power
The percentage of lactose intolerance is 80-something percent. Dairy tolerance is a primarily European trait so it's actually quite rare outside of the western world.
This was fun, thank you. I'm here on Bored Panda for this kind of articles. 💕
Where the hell do they get these percentage information? I disagree with all of them cause there are no facts about these. Your opinion are different than stating facts and I'm a realist and a fact type of person
I have 14 of these things! Yay i am rare
Grey eyes, Hitchiker thumbs, can wiggle my years and flare nostrils, have Widow peak, oh my, such a gal :D
Red Hair, Left handed, Tons of Freckles all over my Body and Green Eyes. So, yeah? :D
I have a rare thing called shoulder subluxation which is where i can half dislocate both shoulders on command! It freaks people out and i've never met anyone else who can do it so please reply if you can!
If this means you can slide through stuff like drainpipes then you win the superhero part of this discussion!
I’m sorry, but there is no way to measure the majority of these stats. These are all estimations, and probably far fetched ones, at that. I know that no one has polled me on whether I have X’s on my palms. There are many old people around the world that are still alive on this planet that have never been fingerprinted. Probably an even higher percentage who have never even looked at the lines on their palms.
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Those where just percentages for white people?
Actually, a lot of the "rare" characteristics are only rare because they only occur frequently in white people. Like red hair and grey eyes - not uncommon in many white populations, but very difficult to find in the rest of the world. Not impossible though.
Yeah lol! Majority of the world is black and brown. White people, middle eastern people, and some west asians have a lot of mutations that are expressed physically like with hair and eyes.
Just checked and yes I am still very bloody inside so I’ll say that I am still very rare
Hahaha
I one green eye and one grey eye red hair.
Stop checking before you stop being bloody inside.
Luckily I'm home alone so no one saw me.
Couldn’t find anything on the list, could you?
I've got blue eyes, can flare my nostrils, got hitchhikers thumbs and can raise both eyebrows.......however I can't do maths very well so I have no idea what percentage of people those combined traits puts me in with. Can't have everything. Does that make me a superhero? "Slightly different to Average-Man". Marvel, DC give me a call.
Congratulations Bill, you're a unicorn!
*Everyone reading this post actually trying some of the "actionable" rarities*
That was fun. Thanks Bored Panda!
And you know what?!!! There's only one of you! You're a special snowflake just like everyone else!
We really are, aren't we? Happy little unique peas in a pod 😍
Unless you're a twin.
I have pectus excavatum, a condition in which a person's breastbone is sunken into his or her chest. (not me in the picture, but it's similar). torax-exca...ae294a.jpg
Okay let's list this... Red hair, blue eyes that turn green blue sometimes for some reason, dimples, lots and lots of freckles born with them, ambidextrous, sneeze with my eyes open, fold my tongue, clover thingy with my tongue, whistle, missing the polmaris muscle thing, I can gleek, and funnily enough I had gap teeth that naturally went away lol. I'm a strange cocktail 🤔 Edit: Also just realised while looking in the mirror I have a widows peak lol
You are probably the uniquest.
And with almost eight billion people on earth, having a 0,0000001% rarity means that there are almost 10 people like you. With a 0,001% rarity that are already 100 000!
100% of the people who read this post fact-checked at least 1 claim.
Or at least should have. ;-)
I am not confident those percentages are completely accurate
I am reasonably sure they aren't.
Right? I mean they say 10% are left handed and 8.3% have a counter clockwise swirl in their hair and us more common than left handedness. Someone has their numbers wrong!🤷
Well that is possible tho Destiney
I have a few rarities, but like most everyone, I'm pretty average overall.
color blind - 8% Aphantasia - 3%
I recently discovered that I have Aphantasia. I was never aware that I was any different than anyone else. It's made me sad.
You're not alone Anna, that was like reading a comment I had written and had no memory of! I can say exactly the same thing about myself as you have done there.
But your brain is used to compensate that. You can be creative as anyone else.
I wonder why people, including myself, feel such a strong need to be special.
We all want to be unique/special. And normal. 😂
Children and adolescents just wanna be like everyone else (their peers) and when they become an adult, all they want to do is be unique.
98.5% of people love to believe they are rare or unique. You are less rare now.
How rare are eyes that change colour, have central heterochromia that's a brown ring and also have partial heterochromia that's a grayish blue spot?
Did you know that 99% of statistics are made up? ;-)
I have 12/30 of these. I feel special :)
Dude, me too!
Only 5% of the population can make up facts on command.
What about winking?!?! I can't wink to save my life!
According to this, I'm a unicorn. I can raise one eyebrow, can flare my nostrils at will, I have dark strawberry blonde hair, grey eyes, can whistle, fold my tongue in half, have 'hitchhiker's thumbs', can 'gleek' (but not on command), have Xes on my palms, 'Morton's Toe', am missing a Palmaris Longus muscle on both arms, and have a double row of eyelashes. No idea what the chances are of having all of those at once. Though honestly, I'd think of myself more of being a genetic freak :P
You are a very special unicorn, go you! :D
What the f is strawberry blonde
AB- Blood Type 1% (I‘m in)
Let's hope you never need packed cells though! Also if you have any antibodies its gonna be a tough time!
I know :(
Ok how many of us tried to lick their elbow??? Spoiler alert--I can't.
That's a sign of a different kind of special 😂😉
Only about 0.0245% of people have the same combination of traits as I do.
We are all spezjul snowflakes!
I can flare my nostrils, wiggle one n both my ears, sneeze in sun, ambidextrous, widowspeak, i can whistle with lips n fingers as well, and 6/6 eye sight
So... does anyone else have the ability to fold, roll and make a clover with their tongue? I have yet to meet anyone who can do all 3. . . Am I a unicorn, or an odd lizard?
12 out of 30.....so I guess not all that special.
I HAVE LIKE ALMOST ALL OF THESE THINGS OMGGGGG
So, natural redhead, blue eyes, covered in freckles, dimple on my left cheek (but not the right), gap between my 2 front bottom teeth, and no wisdom teeth; can gleek, wiggle both ears, flare my nostrils, whistle, and fold my tongue. And here I thought I was just like everyone else, lol
According to this list, I'm a whole 'nother species.
What about feet types
Yeah.. Don't believe all of them... Also, I must be super rare because I'm part of the 30%, 10%, 30%, 2%, 35%, 14%,14%, 20% and 5%!
I have green eyes and dimples and I'm ambidextrous and can lift one eyebrow and flare my nostrils. Am I the rarest person on earth??
I have a tiny hole above my ear, Palmaris Longinus muscles in both my hands, can raise both eyebrows and have only one dimple. Please help me calculate I suck at math.
I have a muscle above my upper lip. It allows me to "curl up" or "fold" my lip. Unfortunately it's not cute like wiggling your nose or ears (I can do that too). It kinda looks like someone chopped your lip off and it's just raw flesh (rich red of the mouth). Great for freaking people out though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Seriously what the hell was the point of that muscle? So weird
I have a double/bifid Uvula which apparently only 2% of the global population have
The intro mentions sneezing with your eyes open, but does not give a stat. But I can do it!
Let’s see, I get the sun sneezing thing, I have green eyes, freckles, can raise either eyebrow, have the genes for red hair, I can wiggle my ears and I have a Morton’s toe…such a unique snowflake I am!
I, as with pretty much everyone else in the world, am 0.000000013% rare.
Me: born with vitilgo, central heterochromia, ambidextrous, can raise both eyebrows. Dang didn't know I was so rare
Also have 1 dimple
Idk if anyone else has this but my second and third toes on both feet are “webbed” in a way. I can’t separate them. They are almost “fused together” does anyone else have this??
I'm left handed, I can flare my nostrils, I can raise one eyebrow, I'm left-handed but also ambidextrous, I have Morton's toe, naturally a blond and I'm an Aquarius. So I am a little bit rare.
I'm a grab bag of recessive genes.
Me: Gray eyes, left-handed, ambidextrous at some things, can raise one eyebrow, can flare nostrils, can wiggle one ear (used to be able to wiggle both, individually), can whistle, have one arched fingerprint. So I wonder how many of these attributes tend to cluster.
I have most of these. I must be rare as a m**o.
I wonder what % of adults can digest dairy without any issues. I've heard it's a small number and I have this mutant power
The percentage of lactose intolerance is 80-something percent. Dairy tolerance is a primarily European trait so it's actually quite rare outside of the western world.
This was fun, thank you. I'm here on Bored Panda for this kind of articles. 💕
Where the hell do they get these percentage information? I disagree with all of them cause there are no facts about these. Your opinion are different than stating facts and I'm a realist and a fact type of person
I have 14 of these things! Yay i am rare
Grey eyes, Hitchiker thumbs, can wiggle my years and flare nostrils, have Widow peak, oh my, such a gal :D
Red Hair, Left handed, Tons of Freckles all over my Body and Green Eyes. So, yeah? :D
I have a rare thing called shoulder subluxation which is where i can half dislocate both shoulders on command! It freaks people out and i've never met anyone else who can do it so please reply if you can!
If this means you can slide through stuff like drainpipes then you win the superhero part of this discussion!
I’m sorry, but there is no way to measure the majority of these stats. These are all estimations, and probably far fetched ones, at that. I know that no one has polled me on whether I have X’s on my palms. There are many old people around the world that are still alive on this planet that have never been fingerprinted. Probably an even higher percentage who have never even looked at the lines on their palms.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Those where just percentages for white people?
Actually, a lot of the "rare" characteristics are only rare because they only occur frequently in white people. Like red hair and grey eyes - not uncommon in many white populations, but very difficult to find in the rest of the world. Not impossible though.
Yeah lol! Majority of the world is black and brown. White people, middle eastern people, and some west asians have a lot of mutations that are expressed physically like with hair and eyes.