59-Year-Old Woman With 12-Inch Nails Reveals She's Been Growing Them Since The '80s

Nov 05, 2021

Every single human is unique in their own special way and some people like to wear that on their sleeve, either by the way they dress or some other form of self-expression. For a 59-year-old woman named Cordelia from Gary, Indiana, the way she expresses her own unique personality is through her 12-inch long nails. 

Inspired by her own mother, who had lengthy nails herself, Cordelia's nails are such a part of her personality, that she's actually been growing them since 1989. And while some people might think 12 inches is incredibly long, Cordelia has had them even longer at various points in time. The longest they'd ever been was 16 inches, but these days her standard length is 12 inches.

As well as expressing herself through the length of her nails, Cordelia uses them as a canvas for artwork as well. Working as a nail technician and makeup artist, it's no wonder that Cordelia puts in the effort to make sure her talons look gorgeous. 

Each nail features a unique colorful design and while she doesn't have a favorite nail, she reveals that her favorite current design is on her ring finger, which features a colorful stained-glass window pattern. Depending on how intricate the design is, each nail can take between 10 and 30 minutes. Since it would take up to 2 and a half hours to take off all of the polish — or paint, which Cordelia uses instead — she ends up going over each design rather than removing the old one first. 

While Cordelia's nails aren't new to her at all, they have only recently gained her popularity on the internet, after she decided to join TikTok in the middle of the pandemic last year. Now, she has over 651,000 followers on the platform, with over 10 million likes. The specific video that catapulted her to fame was an instructional video about how she washes her hands, nails included. That video has over 17 million views today.

After people saw the video, she was bombarded with questions about how she goes about her daily life. And despite being very used to them, she admits that sometimes they do get in the way. 

When it comes to daily tasks like washing the dishes Cordelia uses her knuckles to help her out. Meanwhile, her four fingers that don't include her thumb are easily tucked back against her arm, allowing them to stay out of the way.

But not everyone is a fan of her nails, with many people writing negative comments to her. However, Cordelia doesn't let it bring her down. Comfortable in her own skin, she knows who she is and how she wishes to express herself. When she appeared on a video segment titled "Hooked on the Look," she revealed:

"I'd have to say the best thing about having the super long nails is the attention."

Clearly very connected to her impressively long talons, when asked whether she'd ever go back to having shorter nails again, she said:

"I would not consider having short nails again. No, not at all."

What do you think about Cordelia's 12-inch-long nails? What is something unique that you do to express your personality on the outside? Pass this on to others to inspire them to be themselves, no matter how that looks to others.