Do you know someone who’s left-handed? Left-handers don’t have it easy. The world is pretty much made for right-handed people. Everything we have comes right-handed in its standard design – lefties have to actually look out for a left-handed model of certain things, or learn to adapt themselves to using right-handed models. The most obvious example I can think of as a righty who’s never had to pay much attention to this? Guitars. A left-handed guitar is a mirror image of a regular guitar. If a lefty were to play a guitar meant for a righty, they’d have to learn how to play backwards since the strings for them would be going thin-thick instead of thick-thin as they usually do.
There are a lot of interesting things to know about lefties. Here’s a list of just a few fascinating facts about them.
1. Roughly 5 to 10% of the population is left-handed.
2. Left-handed people tend to make more use of the right side of their brains.
3. Lefties reach puberty 4 to 5 months later than others.
4. Left-handed people are often quite athletic, and roughly 40% of the top tennis players are lefties.
5. Additionally, 4 out of 7 recent U.S. presidents have been left-handed.
6. The word “left” comes from the Anglo-Saxon word “lyft,” which meant broken or weak.
7. Women over 40 are 128% more likely to give birth to a left-handed baby than women in their 20s.
8. Interestingly, although only 10% of humans are left-handed, dogs, cats, and rats have about a 50/50 chance of being lefties.
9. 1 out of 4 Apollo astronauts was left-handed.
10. There are roughly 30 million lefties in the United States.
11. In the event of an accident taking out their dominant hand, lefties have an easier time than righties in adjusting to writing with the other hand.
12. The British Royal Family has several lefties: Prince Charles, Prince William, the Queen Mother, and even Queen Elizabeth II herself.
13. Left-handed people are more likely to suffer from insomnia.
14. August 13th is International Left-Handers Day.
15. Lefties are often quicker to anger. Case in point: left-handed tennis player John McEnroe. ‘Nuff said.
