When she's perpendicular to you, think that instead of turning her leg toward you she's rotating it away. She doesn't "change" direction, and she's not actually spinning.
Imagine instead a quarter spinning on its diameter. If you slow it down, you'd see in silhouette a circle narrowing to an oval until it's perpendicular to you so you just see a sliver. If the quarter stopped and rotated the other way, you wouldn't be able to tell. Same principle.