What drove us to this study? Few days back there were much news citing Social media is feeding girls towards the dangerous thigh-gap obsession. Is Social Media really fuelling girls’ towards the dangerous thigh-gap obsession? If so, how are people using social media to encourage others to get obsessed was the primitive motive behind the study. Interestingly, when we had searched for #thighgap, #thinspiration, #thinspo, (Inspiration to become Thin) on Tumblr. It redirected us to a free help line run by the NEDA. This made us to know how big the issue was on social media Cover page picture credit: www.wnol.info

1. Is Social Media really fuelling
girls’ towards the dangerous
“thigh gap” obsession?
July, 2014

2. WHAT DROVE US TO THIS STUDY:
Few days back there were many news citing Social media
is feeding girls towards the dangerous thigh-gap
obsession. Is Social Media really fuelling girls’ towards
the dangerous thigh-gap obsession? If so, how are people
using social media to encourage others to get obsessed
was the primitive motive of this study. Interestingly, when
we had searched for #thighgap, #thinspiration, #thinspo,
(Inspiration to become Thin) on Tumblr. It redirected us to
a free help line run by the NEDA. This made us to know
how big the issue was on social media
When searched for #thighgap,
#thinspiration and #thinspo,
(Inspiration to become Thin) on
Tumblr, it redirects to this page
“If you can stand straight with your knees
together and see a space between your
upper thighs, you have what thousands of
teen girls are willing to starve themselves
for. The “Thigh Gap”.
Reference: www.startribune.com

3. WHAT DID WE FOUND :
• Based on the engagement per post on Thigh gap, it was observed that posts on thigh gap
were drawing attention from people on social media
• 45% of those who talked about thigh gap showed interest towards having a thigh gap
while 30% of them were not interested/bothered at all
• Being skinny is beautiful, Celebrity Impact, Peer Impact and to have the sexiest look were
the key reasons why girls were interested in thigh gap
• Luring young women to eating disorders, No thigh gap, no problem, Feed the body what it
needs and stay active with a healthy lifestyle and maintaining a fit and curvy is better than
sickly skinny with a thigh gap were the reasons cited by girls who are not interested in Thigh
Gap

4. IS SOCIAL MEDIA REALLY FUELLING GIRLS’ TOWARDS THE DANGEROUS “THIGH GAP”
OBSESSION?
787
715
146
144
122
Workout
Thighgap
Exercise
Health
Fitness
Workout Thighgap Exercise Health Fitness
When the top 25 most popular posts on the five categories shown below are considered, the average
Notes* per post on Work Out and Thigh Gap was very high indicating how posts on Workout and
Thigh Gap received more attention compared to others
Thigh gap had much higher notes per post when
normalized compared to work out. A single post on
work out had around 13574 notes, which helped
workout to have a higher average notes per post
compared to thigh gap

5. HOW ARE PEOPLE USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO GET OBSESSED?
Most of the hashtags around Thigh Gap were around inspiration to become thin and fit
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
#thinspo
#thinspiration
#fitspo
#motivation
#hipbones
#finspo
#fitspiration
#skinnyisbeautiful
#larryforever
#skinny
Count of most frequently used hashtag mentions in the thigh gap data set of 3032 mentions
The following are the Hashtags that young girls associated with Thigh Gap. Most of these hashtags
were used in combination with motivation to become thin and fit. Most of these posts got good
engagement from people

6. 6
Sample Analysis of conversations from people who talked about Thigh Gap
Interested
Percentage of people who
showed interest towards
having a thigh gap among
who talked about Thigh gap
Pranks
Percentage of people who
played pranks around the
Thigh gap
Not Interested
Percentage of people who
are not interested in having
a thigh gap among who
talked about Thigh gap
44.6%
25.1%
Young Girls who have
thigh gap were sharing
their photos on Tumblr
using the hashtags like
#thighgap,
#thinspiration,
#thinspo, #skinny,
#motivation, #fitspo
etc.
Others who see this
images found to like,
share and were
showing interest
towards having a Thigh
Gap
ARE PEOPLE REALLY SHOWING INTEREST IN HAVING A THIGH GAP?
30.3%

7. WHAT ARE THE REASONS CITED FOR/AGAINST HAVING A THIGH GAP?
• To have the sexiest look
• Skinny is beautiful
• Celebrity impact: Their role models have a Thigh gap and so their thigh gap is their idol
• Peer Impact: Motivation from peers who have put down the weight
• No more friction burn when walking long distance in shorts
KEY REASONS CITED BY GIRLS INTERESTED IN THIGH GAP1
• Luring young women to eating disorders
• 1945 Miss America finalists, none of these women have thigh gaps. Not-a-one, stating
the fact No thigh gap, no problem:
• Attaining Thigh Gap can be a self harm to ones diet
• Feed the body what it needs and stay active, with a healthy lifestyle. Beauty is not
having a 6 pack or a thigh gap
• Maintaining a fit and curvy is better than sickly skinny with a thigh gap
KEY REASONS CITED BY GIRLS WHO ARE NOT INTERESTED IN THIGH GAP2

8. SAMPLE CONVERSATIONS AROUND PEOPLE SHOWING INTEREST IN THIGH GAP
https://twitter.com/Starvingcinders/status/490204383226134528

9. SAMPLE CONVERSATIONS AROUND PEOPLE SHOWING INTEREST IN THIGH GAP
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=661676413886283&set=p.661676413886283&type=1&permPage=1

10. PEOPLE WHO SAID THIGH GAP IS NOT SO IMPORTANT

11. PRANKS AROUND THIGH GAP
http://instagram.com/p/ql05obTeqQ/

12. WHICH REGIONS ARE TALKING THE MOST ON THIGH GAP?
People from United states were more interested in talking about Thigh gap; There are significant number
of mentions from India, however at the overall level it constitutes only to 1%
42.3%
8.1%8.1%
3.6%
37.9%
United States Canada United Kingdom Netherlands Others

13. WHO ARE MOST INTERESTED IN TALKING ABOUT THIGH GAP?
Teenagers who are around 13-20 age range shown interest in talking about Thigh Gap

14. Methodology
Simplify360’s proprietary listening tool is used for collecting the data and counting the
number of mentions for each company.
A total of 3 thousand social media conversations analyzed in July.
Geography considered: Global
Period of analysis: July 15 to July 21, 2014

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