The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that the so-called thigh-gap goal is achieved when girls become so slender their thighs don't touch even when their feet are together.
Experts say social media is playing a significant role in fueling this fad and has turned rail-thin models into examples of beauty for girls who are pursuing dangerous dieting habits in order to achieve the look.
"The intrusion and presence of social media in our lives really does make it very difficult," Nancy Albus, chief executive officer of Castlewood Treatment Center, a suburban St. Louis facility that focuses on eating disorders, told the AP. "The important distinction about thigh gap is it gives you an actual visual to achieve, this visual comparison of how your body does or doesn't stack up."
The problem with this image is that it' s not realistic. Experts say the spacing between the thighs isn't necessarily based on weight but is mostly genetic. In fact, even very thin people may never achieve this gap because of how they are built. A person would have to be both skinny and wide-hipped in order for the gap to appear. Even people in exceptionally good shape may not have a thigh gap because their exercise regime has made them too muscular.
"Skinny does not mean fit or muscular," said Vonda Wright, a Pittsburgh-based orthopedic surgeon and fitness expert who works with Division I athletes. "I cannot think of one athlete I deal with" who has a thigh gap, she told the AP.
Unfortunately, as most experts in the field of eating disorders know, extreme beauty standards are often pursued relentlessly by young people who want to achieve beauty according to today's often unhealthy standards.
One example is Sara, a 22-year-old Castlewood client who said thigh-gap websites were a contributing factor in her development of anorexia. A straight-A student who was the captain of her high school swim team, she developed anorexia in her teens and continued to purge and exercise excessively while in college. Visiting thigh-gap sites was one way she kept herself motivated.
"It helped to normalize what I was doing to myself," Sara said. "I never knew before that I wanted a thigh gap. It felt like it was some type of accomplishment that people would want to achieve."
The sites taught her tips on how to keep food out of her stomach, such as by chewing it and then spitting it out before swallowing.
Sara's counselor, Kim Callaway, said she counsels Sara and other clients with eating disorders to avoid social media and even delete their Facebook pages in order to avoid pressure to get too thin.
"It's not uncommon for people to be on Facebook talking about what they ate today, posting pictures of their meals or writing about how they're 10 pounds lighter than they were a month ago," Callaway told the AP.
Thankfully, the National Eating Disorders Association is fighting back and has launched a website that promotes positive body image and encourages people to maintain a healthy attitude toward food and weight.
The National Eating Disorders Association is fighting back with its own site , called "Proud 2B Me" which promotes a positive and healthy body image.
After spending four months in the Castlewood treatment center, she's back to living on her own.
"I want to recover," she said. "And I don't want this to be my life anymore."
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