With a bumper backside that measures 8ft around, Mikel Ruffinelli is the owner of a bottom that is large enough to make even Kim Kardashian's pale in comparison.

Yet despite being just 5ft 4" and tipping the scales at 30st, Mrs Ruffinelli, 39, from Los Angeles, says she is healthy and has a shape that other women envy.

'I have an extreme physique,' explains the mother-of-four, who has a proportionally small 40-inch waist. 'I love my curves, I love my hips, I love my attributes.

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Supersized: Mother-of-four Mikel Ruffinelli is the owner of the world's largest hips which measure 8ft around

'I love my shape and I see no reason to diet because I don’t have health problems. Men don’t fancy skinny girls, they like an hourglass figure.'

Now she is to appear on a new documentary, World's Biggest Hips, alongside three other women who boast supersized rear ends.

Among them is Austrian Claudia Floraunce, 40, who also lives in Los Angeles and tips the scales at 23st, and Las Vegas native, Denise Souder, a 56-year-old grandmother-of-two with 74-inch hips - and who, like Mrs Ruffinelli, has turned her 'curves' into cold, hard cash.

'Growing up, I was the chubby girl,' explains Mrs Souder. 'I was always the chubbiest girl in the class but I never let it stop me from doing whatever I wanted to do.

'There are challenges - I can't get on a rollercoaster. You learn to get around your hips, you learn to embrace your hips, you learn to shop for your hips.

'If someone wants to make a comment about my hips or my size, I don't care what your opinion is.'

Curvy and proud: Mrs Ruffinelli says men don't want slim girls and like an hourglass shape like hers instead

Impressive: Mrs Ruffinelli says she adores her prize-winning posterior - even it it does cause her some issues

Mrs Souder makes her living courtesy of a double life as 'Sweet Cheeks', a plus-size stripper and 'fetish provider' who specialises in services such as squashing and trampling.

'Only in Vegas could you have a stripper like me,' she chuckles. 'They come here on their bachelor party, take the blindfold off and I'm standing there with Twinkies in my hand. It's funny!'

And she's not the only one to monetise her curves. Mrs Ruffinelli has become something of a minor celebrity, while Miss Floraunce hopes to make it as a plus size model.

All, however, are adamant that big really is beautiful. 'I think a lot of people like looking at me because I am a very unique size, very large, but I carry myself with a lot of confidence,' explains Miss Floraunce.

'I get a lot of people saying, look at those hips, look at those curves, your waist looks so tiny compared to those hips. Curves are in and I am in... Finally.'

Miss Floraunce, who moved to Los Angeles from her native Austria aged 19 and gained 12st 7lbs within six months of arriving, says learning to love her supersized proportions has taken time.

'In Austria, it's really rare to have curves,' she says. 'When I go back there, I get stared at. It used to bother me but now I'm like, Why don't you take a picture? It lasts longer.'

Making a living: Denise Souder, 56, has turned her curves into cold, hard cash courtesy of online videos

Family business: Her daughter, known online as Lil' Cheeks, has joined her mother in the video business

Mrs Ruffinelli is also a relative newcomer to a supersized shape, having only gained the extra weight after having children.

'There was a time before I had kids when I had a flat stomach,' she reveals. 'I got this large because genetically, whatever happens with weight gain, goes here [hips].'

Not all, however, developed their large looks as an adult. Marlena Plummer, a 35-year-old New Yorker with the second largest set of hips on the planet, says she has always been big.

'I always had hips, even as an infant I had hips,' she explains. 'It's just a mystery why I have hips and why I am the shape I am.

'I love my hips, I love my shape and I love me. I've been a plus size girl all my life and I've never let it stop me doing anything I want.'

Miss Plummer, who has hips that measure 83 inches around and who tips the scales at 28st, says her supersized physique is all the more surprising because she has a a tiny appetite.

Redefining beauty: Plus-size model Claudia Floraunce, 40, says the criteria for beauty needs an overhaul

Second place: Marlena Plummer, 35, has the second largest set of hips on the planet, after Mrs Ruffinelli

'Because of my shape and my size, people assume I eat a lot. I don't.' Nevertheless, she admits that her world-beating hips do cause some problems.

'My hips always affect me when I'm on the train because I have to take up two seats,' she says. 'I do feel bad sometimes when I see a person standing up but I can't help it that I need two seats.'

Mrs Ruffinelli, for all her exhortations of love for her hips, also admits that hers cause her problems and force her to take a reinforced chair with her wherever she goes.

'Fitting in, fitting on, sitting down... Those are some of my challenges,' she says. But rather than lose weight to fit in with society, she says it's time society started fitting in with her.

'I just think that society hasn't learned that it needs to make things a bit bigger,' she says. 'It's OK to make things bigger. What's the problem?'

Miss Floraunce agrees and says its time to redefine what beauty really means. 'There's a lot of men who love curves,' she says,

'We get forced to look at a certain criteria of women which only about 10 per cent of the world fit into.'

Mrs Ruffinelli agrees. 'I have something that everybody's not going to have,' she says. 'It's like having an outfit that no one else has and most women would like that.'