After years of feeling insecure about her lack of thigh gap, Stacey Baker took to trawling the streets and taking photos of other women's legs. And the result is totally empowering.
It's a hot, sunny, summer's day, and you've got a new skirt that you're dying to wear. But before you walk out the door, you panic, and grab the nearest pair of 90 dernier black tights you can find.
We've all been there. Whether it's because you dropped your razor down the back of the bathtub and haven't quite got round to finding it again, because you don't own a razor in the first place, or feel so pale that you're scared you might be mistaken for a ghost, there's something about baring your legs which requires a baffling level of self confidence.
Which is why we can't get enough of journalist Stacey Baker's Instagram account and website, Citilegs, in which she confronts our expectations of what women's legs are 'supposed' to look like, and shows just how different - and amazing - our lower limbs are. Sure, some women have a thigh gap. But a lot of women don't. And that doesn't make them any less beautiful.
'We want something we don't have — to be taller, have larger breasts or smaller breasts,' Stacey explains. 'I always wanted longer legs. I've always paid attention to and noted legs.'
'When you're walking around New York, you see so many different people and different shapes. Women feel conscious.'
Now with over 66,000 followers, and a book due out this autumn, Stacey's page is super successful. But for her, the most important thing is being able to show the diversity of women's body shapes and sizes. Not to mention one amazing selection of leggings.
'I don’t mean to flatter myself or the project. I know they’re just pictures of women’s legs taken against a wall,' she says in an interview with Slate. 'And I like that more often than not, it’s fuller figures that achieve that, not the model-thin legs. Models’ legs generally don’t make for interesting leg pictures. Legs with curves do and as someone who has always wanted model-thin legs, that’s good for me to see.'
