I Heart Guts is the brainchild of an anatomically obsessed illustrator who loves internal organs and all they do. Founded in 2005, I Heart Guts strives to offer the best in stupid slogans paired with happy gloppy guts.
“The guts grew from a single drawing of a broken heart,” says creator Wendy Bryan. “After a string of bad hookups, dead-end relationships and lame-o boyfriends, the wonderful man I married suggested – ‘Why don’t you do something with those darned guts?’”
Here is what people have said about I Heart Guts since that fateful day:
“Who hasn’t dreamed of owning a shirt with a bright, animated uterus on the front?”
Entertainment Weekly
“Bizarre, giggle-inducing designs”
Cool Hunting
“The deliriously happy bunch is sure to put any get-well card to shame”
Time Out New York
The Chronicle Books’ team all fell in love with these funny, squeezable internal organs and immediately contacted Bryan. This spring we’re happy to introduce the perfect journal to pour you heart into – Spill Your Guts Journal – and a wonderful I Heart Guts Mix & Match Stationery Set for all of your gutsy correspondence.
To celebrate the launch of Chronicle Books’ I Heart Guts line, 5 lucky winners will receive a copy of the journal and mix & match set, along with a plushy heart and an assortment of I Heart Guts pins and stickers. Just add a comment below by Friday, March 12th with your favorite organ, and why. The five winners will be selected at random.
Patti Quill
Marketing & Publicity Manager
Popularity: 2% [?]
My favorite organ would have to be the brain… nothing else would work if the brain took off and left! Plus, that’s where all my memories are stored & every single factoid I’ve ever learned. It’s a pretty darn important organ! Well, they all are – but I choose the brain!
It’s a tough call. The skin is our largest organ, and is soooo cool b/c it keeps our insides inside, and it helps regulate temperature, and of course all those sensations that we feel on our skin lets us experience our life and environment in such an intimate, physical way. Yay skin!
But lungs, wow, lungs are really great b/c they are receiving and releasing our breath, non-stop, 24-7. And a deep breath feels sooo good. We sip in air from the outside world, and we release it slightly changed from having been with us (a little warmer, and less oxygenated).
I have to choose just one?
it’s definitely a cross between the stomach and the brain. i have more fun with the stomach though, a group of friends and i realized that stomachs are like animals and took a lot of time trying to decide what animal’s characteristics best fit our stomach. mine is a baby brontosaurus. . . it doesn’t eat meat, it stomps around when it is angry and when it is hungry it sounds like a dinosaur.
My favorite organ is my brain, ’cause it keeps things running (pretty) smooth and also just looks dang cool!
My fav gut is the uterus! I provide sex education to all ages and the uterus gets a giggle from all! Here, Ursula the Uterus has a wiggly friend named Seamus the Sperm and they accompany me to most of my gigs. When I’m not watching, Seamus tries to sneak to Ursula’s cervix so they require a lot of supervision.
My favorite organ is my appendix because it is so mysterious and inspires so much speculation!
My favourite organ is the liver, its just so cuddly in real life! I remove them every day, and can never resist a little squeeze:)
My favorite guts are the lungs because my last name is Lung! Ever since I married my husband I’ve been trying to find a lung t-shrit. I found the “I Lung You” t shirt by I heart guts. It was perfect for me and it totally fits great. I love everything about the lungs.
My favorite gut is the brain. It is a very convincing organ that makes you believe your favorite organ is itself. It can mentally manipulate the rest of your body into believing that its thoughts and intentions are valued as gold.
OK so this isn’t my favorite organ per se, but I used to write about I Heart Guts when I edited a toy blog, and Wendy should get credit for her wordplay as well as her plush organs. My favorite organ DESCRIPTION has got to be the bladder toy, in which the tagline reads: “Urine for a treat!” Indeed.
Argh! Those are so cool.I’m a nerd, so I’m going to say the brain. It’s where I store all the useless trivia that I love so much.
The Stomach! Without which Pizza Night would definitely not be as fun :(
Oooh, I know that my appendix is my least favorite because it’s the only reason I’ve ever had to have surgery or be under anesthesia in my life! I guess the uterus is my favorite because it’s just got to be the strongest thing in my body to have grown, and then pushed out, a total of 28 pounds of babies (spread out among three little ones over 7 years!)
These are adorable and hilarious!
My liver, because it helps digest the food I love to eat!
Oh such plentiful organs! I have to say my favorite is the heart. It’s just so weird looking! My bathroom is decorated with an anatomy theme and I have a few cool illustrations of hearts up on the walls.
I’m going with my colon… I have Crohn’s Disease so I have colon on the brain everyday, but as I’ve come to learn, most people don’t like to hear about your colon! LOL
My favorite organ is the heart, where the beat of life exists. Without the heart, one is dead — physically and spiritually.
By far my favorite organ is my uterus cause it’s what makes me the cranky, bloated, crampy woman that I am. It may also be used to house a little whipper snapper one of these days and it will stretch to millions of times it’s size to accommodate and then snap right back into place. It’s a remarkable organ that should have it’s virtues extolled daily.
My favorite is the heart because that’s where the Piggles love is
My favorite is the uterus, since I used it to produce a couple great kids :)
As a new dad, I have to go with the uterus! Due to a bit of (mis)fortune the doctor actually held up my wife’s uterus for me to “check out”. Umm, not such a pretty site. Thankfully, I have managed to replace that image in my mind with your adorable plushie. Whew, crisis averted! :D
my favorite organ is electric…j/k, I like the brain, can’t live or think creative thoughts w/o it
The heart… mine is slightly defective and I love imperfect things.
My favourite guts are just that – the guts!! Small bowel or large bowel, you just can’t beat ‘em.
People take eating, digestion, and excretion for granted. Every animal needs to eat but humans are the only ones who get so hung up on actually doing the act – low cal, low fat, high fiber, organic or not, vegan or meat-a-vore? From a restaurant, in front of the tv, or at the table with the family? Meal times are anything but simple.
Deer don’t think twice about what’s good for them, they just follow their instincts and graze away quite happily. But humans are perpetually baffled and distracted by the latest science news, diet fads, and supermarket advertising. I think that if anyone did a good study, it would be pretty obvious that acquiring, preparing, and eating food is one of our nation’s number one stressors.
For all our self-restrictions about what we think we should or should not eat – there are those among us who don’t have as much choice. If you have Crohn’s or anaphylaxis to certain foods, shopping, cooking, and even going out to a restaurant can be whole lot more tricky than many people take the time to consider.
Lastly, it’s not until the pipes get a plug that people take time to ponder the wonder of how what goes in must come out again. Colorectal cancer is the second only to lung cancer in both incidence and mortality in North America. Thousands of people every year have their guts removed and replaced with a bag taped to their waist because of cancer and almost as many will die from the disease.
And that’s why I love guts. We rarely think about them until something goes wrong – but there they are, enabling us to do some of our simplest and yet greatest pleasures in life… ergo, intestines rock.
I generally rate body parts by awesome sounding-ness, then weirdest, and then usefulness. So, I’d have to say esophagus and pituitary are tied for first. Since they don’t really count as “guts,” I’m going to say final answer: Spleen. Totally underrated organ.
kidneys! because there are two of them so they’ll never get lonely! :)
I hesitate between my brain (as I enjoy to be challenged with puzzles and solve mysteries), my skin (i looove the sense of touch), my eyes (for the power to see Nature’s beauties, and read), and my tongue.
I will go with my tongue, because it allows me to speak, sing (even badly) and to enjoy the wonderful world of gastronomy. There is nothing like visiting the world via your tongue and international cusine :-)
My favourite organ is my intestines. Like Grace (previous commenter) I have Crohn’s Disease and I like to give my guts as much love as I can – they’re doing their very best to do what they need to do, even through the inflammation and medication and surgery. So, yaaaaaaay intestines!
My favorite organ is my skin, because it helps keep all my other organs safe.
The bladder. My bladder makes sure I never oversleep, it interrupts long road trips to keep them from getting boring, it gives you an excuse to inspect someone’s bathroom. :)
My favorite organ is my spleen… because venting it feels soooo good!
I love the digestive system, especially the small intestine. The way it works is so fascinating, the way it pushes food through itself, absorbing nutrients and soaking up water…plus they’re adorable, like little tubes of happiness inside you.
Oh my gosh! I’m so excited to see I Heart Guts in stationery form. I like the pituitary because it does all those fun hormone-y things and hangs off a little stalk (and it’s really interesting from a biological perspective too).
i love the entire line, but i’m parital to the kidney. too cute!
My favorite organ is the heart, for it’s shape, function, and the happiness it brings us in life.
My favorite organ is my liver, because it works so hard for me. Sorry, liver.
I’m in my first year of med school and right in the midst of organ physiology! My favorite organ so far has definitely been the heart! The mitral valve looks like a mermaid. The chambers look like secret rooms in a garden. The sound of turbulent blood whooshing back and forth sounds like falling through clouds. The heart is pure magic…
Oops! I gave a non-existent email address! :/ So here I go again…
I’m in my first year of med school and right in the midst of organ physiology! My favorite organ so far has definitely been the heart! The mitral valve looks like a mermaid. The chambers look like secret rooms in a garden. The sound of turbulent blood whooshing back and forth sounds like falling through clouds. The heart is pure magic…
My stepfather is a cardiologist so I am partial to the heart, although skin is super cool since it is amazingly regenerative… tough call.
my favorite organ is my ears. because without them i would not be able to listen to music and without music, i don’t really feel life would be worth living.
The kidney of course! The ultimate cleaning machine.
the heart because it’s special
it’s all about the heart!
My favorite organ is the thyroid gland, as it is the master of your metabolism. Need an energy burst? Need a nap? Those two delightful hormones, T3 and T4, and their precursors, iodine and tyrosine, will help you get where you need to go, at the appropriate pace. Thyroid hormones also play a major role in brain development. Wow!
Favorite organ…the spleen because it is not given much attention yet it keeps our blood clean and fights disease.
My favorite organs are the lungs because if you’re not breathing you’re dead!
The spleen, because he is the only fighter of all the guts. He fights for me, keeping my blood clean and me healthy. He is a cute little gut with bravery and compassion. He is a great companion to my body and everyone’s own organ system. Splee!
I love the liver – it allows us to enjoy the finer things in life such as champagne, chocolate and hot chips. Sorry liver.
The Spleen . . . cuz it is squishy (even more than the rest)
I’m going with the gall bladder. It seems to be a misunderstood organ, but if the Japanese call it “skillful,” there must be a good reason, right?
My favourite organ would have to be the Pituitary Gland. I would have to go with this little guy because he basically controls all the other endocrine glands. Even though he’s about the size of a pea, he is the cause for things from growth to the conversion of food to energy. It’s a pretty amazing feat.
My favorite organ is the gall bladder, because [usually] it doesn’t require an invasive surgery to remove.
The liver, because it’s so soft.
i have had my problems with probably each and every organ there is…but i guess my favorite one would have to be the brain. strange as it can be, imagination, creativity, logic and thinking are a few of my favorite things.
I would have to say the kidney! My friend has had numerous kidneys due to kidney failure and I have high hopes that it will stop hating and start working!
I love my heart with all it’s pumping. No other organ can make me feel so alive!
My favorite organ is the stomach because it so kindly tolerates all of the crappy college food I put into it.
My favorite organ is my heart because it keeps my blood flowing, represents passion and love, and is more core! (:
Normally I’d say the brain, but as of late, the heart wins out. I learned last week about coronary circulation and how after the heart works so hard to serve and feed the rest of the body, it gets the leftover blood for itself. It seemed poetic to me, like Cinderella, earning a crown by having a kind, giving, and humble nature, not necessarily aware of its own beauty or importance.
My favorite organ is definitely the brain! Because you could switch any of your other organs out with someone else’s and be basically the same person, but if you switched brains with someone else you would be someone else entirely! :D
The best is the bladder… nothing feels as good as relieving a full bladder (sneezing is a close second)
I LOVE the kidney because it is the MOST adorable thing EVER! and In plus I have kidney problems so, I’d really want to buy a kidney. Bt second tho that I LOVE the heart.
oh, I forgot to mention, I want to be a cardio surgeon when I am older ;)
As someone who works in the field of organ donation and transplant, it’s incredibly hard for me to pick ONE organ as my favorite! I have met awesome recipients of hearts, livers, kidneys, lungs, pancreati, etc. They’re all amazing.
But if I had to pick a personal favorite, I’d go with the stomach. Several months ago my ENT doc ran a long scope down my throat to look at my stomach (for causes of my GERD). To my great joy, he told me to turn my head and look at the monitor so I could see, too. I got to see the inside of my own stomach!! It was WAY cool.
My second favorite would be the intestines. My dad’s doctor took lovely color photos of the inside of dad’s colon during a regular colonoscopy, and dad showed me the photos. I’ve seen the inside of my dad’s intestines – that’s pretty cool, too.
My brother was a tissue donor (heart valves, bones, corneas, achilles tendons, saphenous veins), and his donations were expected to help approximately 70 people, so my favorite organ is any organ that can be donated to help improve or save the lives of others.
My favourite is the uterus. I wanna be a OBGYN when I finish medical school because I think pregnancy is the most interesting thing ever :)
Well, it’s not necessarily my favorite, but if I had to pick one that’s been on my mind lately, it would be the pancreas. My dear father-in-law has pancreatic cancer, and I wish I could give him a new, happy one!
My favorite organ is my heart – so much love inside for my friends and family!
wins4kimmy at gmail.com
The heart. It keeps me employed…
I think i love the Heart.
It keeps us going its a wonderful organ and without it we would die.
its a engineers DREAM how it works what it does. its really astounding
My favorite organ would have to be the uterus! It keeps me employed! I’m a labor and delivery nurse and a future women’s health nurse practitioner.
I would have to say that my favorite organ is the brain – absolutely fascinating thing! The way it works, the innate power that lies within it – truly amazing and science hasn’t figured it completely out yet either which adds to the mystique! :) And it’s so very essential to living as well – it tells every other organ what to do!
WOW! I definitely want to win!!! I LOVE my plush organs from iheartguts! My fave is BY FAR, my uterus plush! Why you ask? Simply because its adorable and its meaning for me personally, is special. I recently went in for a tubal reversal surgery, making my uterus whole and happy once again! I even brought my surgeon a uterus plush of his very own!!! Perfect!! :)
My favorite organ is the heart for so many reasons. It maintains it’s own vitality. It can pump without outside influence. Its the only organ that when you feel it you associate it with great things: eg excitement, love. And I can def say if one is lucky enough to get the chance to see it they will be in awe of how amazing of a structure it truly is.
As a side note: I work on a pediatric transplant unit and everyone especially the kids, LOVE your mechandise. You have no idea the effects you have had on these kids! Thank you for those days of broken hearts and spirits that lead to the mending of their’s.
The hypothalamus. I helped Wendy figure out what is does!
My favorite organ is the liver because it can regenerate itself!
My favorite organ would definitely be the heart. I don’t really know why, but seeing a live heart just fascinates me and being able to hear and feel it beating is pretty darn cool! Plus, it works hard to keep us alive and the blood flowing to all parts of the body!
I know I’m late, but this is just so much fun!! It’s so hard to choose a favorite organ, because so many times, its such a love/hate relationship, lol :P I would have to say the brain. It is so complex and allows us to do so many things, make all sorts of decisions, and regulates so many things our body does. Wow…
Congratulations! to the winners:
#18 Pollyanna
# 39 Naomi
#58 Alaina
#62 Jennifer M.
#76 Jennifer T.
My favourite is the gall bladder… why?? cos its so GREEN!!!
My Stomach, because when I'm at odds with my head and my heart. My stomach gut instincts always knows the right action to take.