If there’s anything I’ve discovered since starting this blog, it’s that boobs are hilarious. Even my administrative law judge couldn’t resist making a boob joke in his decision to grant me unemployment benefits in 2009. But in my teens and tweens, it was another story: nothing was funny about my boobs. They were an embarrassment that I tried to disguise or hide under prim or baggy clothes.
It’s this memory that gives me empathy for full-breasted girls and why I became so excited as I blogged last Friday. I knew that everyone was out shopping, but I felt deflated when no one jumped on the bandwagon with me. Then a friend and former bra fitter sent me this re-energizing email:
I read your latest post about DD mentor/ awareness/ charity. I would be ALL over that. One of the more moving/frustrating experiences I had while working in the dressing rooms at [Anonymous Lingerie Store] was telling younger girls ( as young as 14) that they were anything over a D and seeing them recoil in horror. There is such an ignorance with the general public regarding sizing and these poor girls feel awful.
I would also like to take the “humor” out of the whole experience. Knowing me, I’m sure you know that I don’t mean to make the experience unpleasant or somber. I just tire of people not familiar with size giggling about anything above a D or suggesting that that somehow means augmented. Sorry to ramble, but it is just one more thing that drives me crazy.
Anyway, I totally agree that these girls could use a support network. The poor things just want to look like their friends and their friends take no pity on them, instead acting like they are somehow lucky to be so well endowed.
I couldn’t have said it better. Are you ready to jump on the bandwagon with us?
Let’s start with letters. If you passed a well-developed young teenager on the street who was obviously wearing the wrong bra, and a magical lingerie store owner suddenly appeared out of nowhere, tapped you on the shoulder and said, “You are to be this girl’s D+ Godmother. Write her a heartfelt letter of advice, and you could win an unlimited supply of all your favorite bras (with matching panties!) for the rest of your life,” what would you write?
Write a letter to that girl on the street (you decide her age and what she looks like) and send it to me at “darlene AT hourglassy DOT com” by midnight, PST, on Friday, December 16, and you’ll win something, although I can’t promise you a lifetime supply of your favorite lingerie. The top three submissions will win a little something more.
I know you have all sorts of things to tell your D+ goddaughter, but please keep your very first letter to her between 300-1000 words.
I’ve been thinking a lot about your post from Friday. It somehow still seems as a shock to me that a teenage girl could have such angst about her boobs. I never did, though I probably shouldn’t say that my experience would be the same as everyone. I love attention, and sure, my boobs got me that attention. However, someone much more introverted than myself (or more aware of D+ bra sizes than I was), might not enjoy being well-endowed.
I’m going to challenge myself to write a letter. Chances are high that genetics sprinkled a little extra booby dust on my daughter, and she may not have the same personality that I do. It’ll be good practice for approaching her as a teenager.
I was thinking about your daughter being a possible motivation for you to write! What’s great about you, Karen, is that your only boob complaint is the difficulty of finding the right fit in bras and clothing.
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I really love this challenge!
Maybe if I find some time I’ll try a letter myself. But being not a D+ Girl myself, people tend to net take me serious when talking about “big brasâ€.
Maybe this letter will help me to understand girls better 🙂
denocte
We (Busenfreundinnen) call the described phenomenon “letterphobia” (Buchstabenphobie) which is probably a translation from a polish bra fitting term. (They’re really great in inventing names for stuff. ;))
And yeah… getting breasts is a difficult experience, anyhow. I hurts, you can’t move around like you used to, boys start to stare, you feel insufficient since your breasts are likely to be too small, too big or otherwise not as perfect as they are in magazines. If you also experience trouble finding a bra that fits, you re likely to feel like an alien.
I can’t think of no thing that will change that on the short run.
I just hope this one size fits all idea will disappear with time and a consciousness will arise that womens bodys differ from each other and beauty is not connected to size tags.
However, I’ve seen many women grewing more body confident after realising that there were actually bra sizes that fit them and their boobs weren’t just to big for every cup. So I really hope bra fitting with all its positive side effects will spread and go for world domination. 🙂
This is the key: “I’ve seen many women grewing more body confident after realising that there were actually bra sizes that fit them and their boobs weren’t just to big for every cup.”
And I think the fact that there are great bloggers out there who care about this subject and great fitters and stores who offer these sizes will help make a big difference.
Sometimes, however, I live in a bubble where I think everyone possesses the knowledge that we have, and it surprises me to realize that there are still girls just starting out who have to learn everything the hard way, just like we did. I don’t want all our learning to go to waste! They should benefit from it!