Latest Teen Thinness Craze Is Quite Disturbing

Teenage girls in the U.S. are apparently fixated on a new thinness trend: thighs-gaps.

AFP reported on Tuesday (opens in new tab) that teens are now looking to the space between their legs, when standing with feet together, to demonstrate thinness. The gap is a natural occurrence for women who are born bow-legged, however quite difficult (read: basically impossible) to achieve otherwise. Teens are taking to social media sites including Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram to share photos of the space between their thighs—at times bragging about the gap or mocking the trend.

Clinical psychologist Barbara Greenberg told AFP that the gap is a "matter of bone structure [which] the majority of women do not have." So let's hope this trend is short-lived.

Experts worry that the new trend can perpetuate feelings of low self-esteem and eventually eating disorders. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (opens in new tab), 95 percent of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25.8. Over one-half of teenage girls use unhealthy weight control behaviors including skipping meals and taking laxatives.