In 1949, LIFE magazine sent famed photographer Nina Leen to document the daily life of a sassy troupe of young women who had run off and joined the famous Barnum & Bailey Circus in Sarasota, Fla. What developed was a portrait of a sisterhood formed over acrobatics that mixed high-flying wire acts with fashionable high-waisted shorts. Sarasota was once considered “the home of the American circus”. Here: an aerialist smoking while rehearsing for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Sarasota, FL in 1949. (Photo By Nina Leen/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

A child enjoys yellow gingko leaves outside the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on November 8, 2022 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Zhao Jun/China News Service via Getty Images)

People eat sushi off the body of a model at an opening event of a bar in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, August 22, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A glass skywalk in Wanyuan, Sichuan province, built along the side of a cliff, is the highest such skywalk anywhere in China on January 31, 2017. Some visitors have been proven to be terrified by the experience had to brace against the wall in fear. (Photo by Chinanew.com/AsiaWire)

Vendors selling marigold garlands, which are used to decorate temples and homes during the Hindu festival of Durga Puja, drink tea as they wait for customers at a wholesale flower market in Kolkata, India October 6, 2016. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

Gorillas at Royal Burgers’ Zoo, Arnhem, Netherlands, on November 28, 2013. (Photo by Vidi Photo/Startraks Photo New York)

Activists from the animal rights group PETA wearing bikinis and crocodile masks assist each other outside a store of the French fashion label Hermes in Sydney on March 4, 2021, as they protest against their use of crocodile skins and the recent purchases by Hermes and LVMH of crocodile farms in Australia's Northern Territory. (Photo by David Gray/AFP Photo)

People try to catch offerings thrown off the summit of Mount Bromo volcano by Tengger tribe members and local tourists in Probolinggo, East Java province on July 18, 2019, as part of the Yadnya Kasada Festival. During the annual Yadnya Kasada festival, the Tenggerese climb Mount Bromo, an active volcano, and seek the blessing from the main deity by presenting offerings of rice, fruit, livestock and other items. (Photo by Juni Kriswanto/AFP Photo)