TikTok bans 'legging legs' trend over risks for people with eating disorders

The term "legging legs" was removed from TikTok due to a concerning trend that was reported to be potentially upsetting for users with eating disorders.

The short-lived trend had an impact, even though the hashtag #legginglegs has now been removed from the platform and now points users to information about eating disorders or disordered eating. When women started posting videos of themselves in yoga pants flaunting their thigh gaps, the trend initially went global, according to the Independent.

TikTok users quickly started to counter the trend as it gained traction, arguing that it could be especially harmful because it encourages eating disorders and body dysmorphia.

Therapist Holly Essler condemned the trend in a video, saying: “If you have seen this on social media, it’s repulsing.”

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“Basically it’s a trend saying that if you have leggings and you wear leggings your legs have to look a certain way in them,” she continued. “Again, this is disgusting. 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.”

“Thank you for speaking up against these toxic trends that lead girls to so much insecurity and worse,” one person wrote in the comment section of Essler’s video.

Not only did Essler criticised the trend's popularity, but body-positivity influencer Ashlee Rose Hartley (@ashleyrosehartley) expressed her opinions in a different video that went viral on the platform and garnered 900 comments from other women who echoed her disapproval of the harmful trend.

In the overlaid text of her video, Hartley wrote: “I just saw a new trend called ‘legging legs’ that’s circulating on the internet & it’s young people critiquing their legs in leggings & saying that the perfect legs for leggings is a giant square thigh gap & small legs...here to remind you all that legs are legging legs.”

“I have been crying for the past 4 hours bc I don’t have ‘legging legs’ and my bf has been trying to comfort me the entire time,” one viewer commented below the video. Hartley responded, “I’m so sorry you’re feeling that. Just know you’re beautiful no matter what. Trends like this are designed to be exclusive but keep shining.”