As sophisticated as teenage girls are becoming (and I should know, I have two of them), it turns out they don’t know much about a topic close to their hearts: breasts. When Breastcancer.org—together with Lankenau Hospital in Philadelphia—surveyed more than 3,000 girls, they discovered that:
• More than 30% of girls perceived a normal change in their breasts to be a sign of breast cancer
• More than 20% thought breast cancer was caused by infection, tanning, drug use, stress, or breast injury—all of which are breast cancer myths
So Marisa C. Weiss, MD, the founder of Breastcancer.org, and her 18-year-old daughter, Isabel Friedman, wrote Taking Care of Your Girls, a book about breast health for teenagers; it comes out this week.
This is exactly the kind of book I’d like my daughters to read and that I wish I’d had growing up. All I knew about breasts back then was that, for the longest time, I didn’t have any. That both depressed and alarmed me. Had I done something wrong? Was some kind of disease stunting my boobs’ growth?
Those kinds of questions apparently still plague teen girls, no matter how savvy they may be on other topics. “Girls today are smart, but they just don’t know a lot about their breasts or how to keep them healthy,” says Dr. Weiss. “There are adult books and websites on breast cancer, and some puberty books with breast chapters, but nothing written for the modern-day sophisticated girl who is an information seeker.”
Dr. Weiss, who is a breast oncologist, also was concerned about the impact of all the pink-ribbon breast cancer press. Even her own daughter had worries: “I worried about breast cancer until my mother explained that the risks for young girls are very low,” says coauthor Isabel Friedman. “But I have a mom who is an oncologist and most girls don’t.”
That’s why she and her mom filled their book with down-to-earth medical information and illustrations, and quotes from real girls on everything from finding the right bra and the embarrassment of puffy nipples, to the truth about augmentation and (perhaps most useful) how to deal with boys who like to tease.
Friedman also talks frankly about “rackne,” her lingo for chest zits, and how she struggled with stretch marks when her breasts first grew.
Having these candid and knowledgeable guides to “boobdom” makes the journey through it authentic and illuminating. I even learned something I didn’t know—that yeast infections can show up as white spots on your breast skin.
If I’d had this book lo those many years ago, I would have felt a whole lot better about myself. And I would have known what to say when that snot-faced kid in eighth grade said, “Hey Krueger, Halloween is over. Time to take off your sunken chest.”
(GETTY IMAGES)
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