I mastered the art of sneezing with my eyes open — my eyeballs don’t pop out
She showcased eyeballs of steel.
A Brazilian TikTok influencer both revulsed and impressed viewers after mastering the art of sneezing with her eyes open — and not causing her peepers to pop out.
A video of her display of ocular fortitude has amassed over 49 million eyeballs online.
“Now I know why when I’m driving I get crazy stares!” Isabela Barbosa, 22, told Jam Press of her unique and seemingly retina-rupturing talent.
The TikToker, who hails from Brazil but now lives in Richmond, Virginia, said she wanted to disprove the old wive’s tale that sneezing with your eyes open can cause your eyeballs to “pop out of your head.”
The social media star reportedly accomplished the feat on the regular while driving, so she decided to record one open-peepered sneeze take for her fans to prove that this was indeed a myth.
“My irrational fear of driving, sneezing and crashing my car also pushed me to start learning,” joked Barbosa, who boasts over 944,000 followers on TikTok.
In the eye-popping footage, the daredevil can be seen prepping for the stunt by shoving an unidentified object in her nose.
She then opens her orbs as wide as possible, a la Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange,” and emits an earsplitting nasal evacuation sans shutting her peepers, before laughing hysterically over her achievement.
It’s yet unclear how the Brazilian woman was able to maintain a stare while sneezing and she even insists that “there wasn’t any specific training I did.”
“I just kept my eyes really wide open and tried my best to not close them,” insisted the TikTokker.
The TikTok commentariat was impressed that she was able to put her money where her peepers were.
“You know how many times I tried this while driving LMAO,” exclaimed one viewer, while another wrote, “This is honestly such a flex lol.”
“That’s me when I have freshly applied mascara and have to sneeze!” quipped a third.
Another fan gushed, “She did the impossible.”
Others were impressed that Barbosa was able to put the age-old “pop-eye” tale to bed. “So the legend isn’t true. your eyeballs don’t pop out when you sneeze with eyes open,” marveled one commenter.
According to medical experts, it is absolutely possible to sneeze with one’s eyes open — suggesting that this mechanism’s not hard-wired or mandatory — and that expelling air from one’s nostrils won’t do the same to one’s stargazers, Science Daily reported.
“Pressure released from a sneeze is extremely unlikely to cause an eyeball to pop out even if your eyes are open,” said David Huston, MD, associate dean of the Texas A&M College of Medicine Houston campus and an allergist at Houston Methodist Hospital.
Barbosa summed up the effect like this: “It just feels like a normal sneeze, and I promise you, there aren’t any health risks,” she declared, adding that the worst thing that happens is getting “dust particles in your eyes.”
In fact, people are actually more likely to injure their eyeballs and other body parts by stifling a sneeze.
According to the University of Arkansas, holding in this germ ejection mechanism can cause problems ranging from hearing loss, diaphragm injuries and ruptured blood vessels in the eye.
This isn’t the first time Barbosa has attempted to achieve the alleged impossible.
In October, the clout-seeker tried maintaining a straight face on a rollercoaster to win a bet with her husband, only to dissolve into smiles while coming around the bend.
