Thigh gaps are back and resurfacing on the popular social media site TikTok under a new name “legging legs.”
The new trend is targeting Gen Z and Gen Alpha users as it gains traction with its hashtag.
On TikTok, many of its users can be seen shown posting videos of them wearing yoga pants, backing up to show their bodies in full view and pointing out their thigh gaps that are, “the best look in yoga pants.”
Many users, primarily women, are bashing the trend calling it “hurtful,” a “new insecurity,” and a reminiscent of the 2014 “body image” posts that circulated on Tumblr.
In 2014, many young girls viewed posts on social media, primarily Tumblr, which showed women standing up straight, their feet together and showing a small gap between their thighs. Girls who did not have a thigh gap were to be considered fat and felt pressure to loose weight in order to fit into the ongoing trend.
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TikTok users unite to stop new thigh gap trend
“This is disgusting,” said Holly Essler, a clinical therapist, in a TikTok post. “Do not let social media tell your body that it is a trend. If you have a body and you have leggings, you have legging legs. Wear the leggings, be proud, be confident, you have legging legs.”
One content creator, who goes by Emily, called social media very toxic and the trend “the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”
“Do we understand that there are 15-year-old girls that wear leggings every single day that now feel that they cannot wear leggings because they don’t have ‘legging legs’?” she asked the trend makers in her TikTok post.
Another user talks about the impact the 2014 Tumblr thigh gap trend that impacted many school-aged girls who pursued that image.
“Let’s not do that again,” Soph said in her post. “Lets not go back there. If you want to wear leggings, wear leggings. Your legs look beautiful in them no matter what. Leggings are leggings and legs are legs.”
‘The kind of stuff that lives with you’
One parent was almost brought to tears after hearing about the legging legs trend. Shannon Cole, a mom of teenage girls, says this trend can lead to serious issues like eating disorders, something she went through in her life.
“We’re talking about treating a [expletive] thigh gap like it’s a trend. It’s not a trend. Eating disorders are not [expletive] trends.” Cole said in her post. “If you see this video and you have one of those videos up I suggest you take it down. For you own mental health and for all the young women that are going to come across these videos.”
Cole said this trend could cause young girls to have body image issues when seeing these types of videos online.
“This is the kind of stuff that lives with you,” Cole said.