Do you want hipbones or pizza? A gap between your thighs or cake? Collarbones or sweets? A flat stomach or soda?

The above lines are from a picture that has been floating around the internet, particularly social media. I know that I’ve seen this pop up on my Facebook newsfeed on more than one occasion. With how social media is, any one thing can spark a trend in an instant, and there is a fear that this picture has sparked a dangerous trend: the thigh gap.

This “thigh gap” is essentially a space between a woman’s thighs when she is standing with her feet close together. This has become a goal for some women to attain, not realizing how dangerous this could be.

First of all, the thigh has some major muscle to it. Some women may look at their thighs and think it’s all fat that needs to be shed away, but that’s not true. A lot of muscle is there, and to shed that could prove to be dangerous.

Second, what some women don’t realize is that the thigh gap that some women have plays into genetics. These women are born with naturally skinnier thighs, and they are also born with wider hips, giving the look of having a thigh gap. So unless a woman were to alter her body in such a way so as to give herself wider hips, it is unlikely that she will achieve this goal of having a thigh gap.

The thigh gap is virtually unattainable, and yet some women still strive for it. Why?

It’s visual. Women can look in the mirror and see that they’ve got a space between their thighs, which means they’ve lost weight. If they look in the mirror and see their thighs touch, they may feel fat or like they’ve failed in trying to lose weight. Consequently, some women can develop an eating disorder trying to achieve this gap, starving themselves, binging and purging or exercising obsessively so as to reach their goal.

As I mentioned previously, this was cycling around on Facebook for quite some time, so if a woman were to log onto Facebook and see this time and time again, it may drive her desire to lose the weight between her thighs.

But ladies, look at that picture. Those women are not healthy looking. If that’s the body shape they were born with, then that’s great for them, and I’m not going to knock them for it. But if they’ve starved and exercised themselves to that point, trying desperately to put a gap between their thighs or allow their hipbones to protrude from their body, don’t.

This is a common look for supermodels, and though we’ve heard it time and time again, these aren’t women that you need to model yourselves after. The supermodel is not the well-rounded, all-American woman that we all need to strive for; on average, she weighs a little over 100 pounds, and at a height of anywhere between five feet eight inches to five feet ten inches, which is unhealthy. Personally, I’m five foot six, and my body weight is between 130 and 140 pounds. Clearly, the average model height and weight is not too healthy.

Again, I’m not going to knock these women if that’s how they were born. What I want to be made clear is that you should be proud of the body you were born with, whether you’re skinny or heavy, tall or short. This thigh gap, protruding collarbones and hipbones should not be measures of beauty for women. You should be proud of how you were born. And when that picture pops up in your newsfeed, just scroll past it; there’s no need to compare yourself to the women in that picture.

You are beautiful just as you are.