Stages and Surprises (In Breast Land)

Hey, my Tribelet of precious Mini-Women! At last, a REAL POST. Let’s get right to it shall we?

When I read your comments (and remember that when you get a reply from MELLE, that’s really me) I was happy to see that most of you are kind of excited about becoming young women. Still, I wasn’t surprised that there are some niggling doubts about the whole thing — and the biggest one seems to be: Am I normal?

I can answer that in one word: YES! But since you’re going to want more information than that to be convinced, here you go. These are the stages of breast development that everybody goes through — each at your own speed:

     STAGE 1: Pre-puberty — No breasts yet, but you’ll get them when your body’s ready. You’re not “behind”. You’re simply you. 

STAGE 2:  Breast buds — These quarter-sized bumps are the very beginning of your future breasts. Don’t worry if they aren’t exactly the same size or they stay this way for a year or they blossom into the next stage after a few months. It’s all good.

STAGE 3: Developing breasts — The shape of your breasts in this stage is a lot like they’ll be when you’re an adult, only smaller.

No worries. Enjoy wearing the cutest, most comfortable bra you can find (more on that in Monday’s post)

STAGE 4: Nipple and areola (the darker part) mound — This is an interesting stage because your breasts may stay the way they are in shape and just grow larger, or they might move on to the next stage. Keep remembering: everybody is different.

  STAGE 5: Adult breasts. Even though you won’t be an adult  yet when you hit this stage, your breasts will have fully developed.  They might continue to grow in size, but their shape is a sign of your womanly self — which is fabulous.

You don’t have to share which stage you’re in, since that’s a personal matter. What we would love to hear is that you’re relieved to know you’re right where you should be (because there IS no “should”) and that you’re looking forward to the shape you’re going to take.

Because here’s the deal, Mini-Women: God loves creating every one of us to be unique. It was never God’s idea for everybody to be the same, and especially for every woman to have a body identical to what some (clueless) person somewhere decided was the “perfect shape.” THERE IS NO PERFECT SHAPE! Wait, yes there is — and it’s YOURS!

I bet, though, that even after I’ve said that you might still be thinking, “Yes, but …”

What you’re probably concerned about are the Breast Surprises. Things like this:

    *When your breasts hurt. Yeah, the whole growing thing can make them itchy or tender or even painful. That’s normal, and it will go away. Heat helps.

   * A weird bumpy thing under your nipple. Don’t panic — it’s not a tumor! It’s just part of the blooming process.

   * Nipples that go in instead of out. Not to worry. Some girls have innies and some have outies. The nipples will appear if in the future you need them to feed babies.

  * Springing a leak. A little occasional fluid out of your breasts isn’t unusual. The hormones are just doing their thing. Don’t squeeze, though; that just makes them drippier.

That’s a lot of info — I’m thinking plenty for now. The one thing I hope you’ll take away from this is that you’re normal and beautiful and perfect. NO MATTER WHAT ANYBODY SAYS. To make sure that sinks in, why don’t you try these 3 things?

    (1) If you see an ad or a picture or some chick’s “perfect” body (like, she resembles a Barbie doll) look away. Don’t dwell on it. Say to yourself, “I am beautifully and awesomely made.” DO it.

   (2) Stand straight and tall and don’t cave in your chest. I’m not saying flaunt yourself! I AM saying, there is no shame or embarrassment in developing into a young woman. If boys  or other girls or adults who should know better make comments about the way your breasts are coming along, don’t defend or cry or respond in anger (no pinching anybody’s head off). Just feel sorry for them. They clearly don’t know what you know, which is that the human body is a beautiful, God-made thing. Period.  DO it.

(3) Get out your Talking To God Journal.   Write about the way you’re feeling when it comes to taking shape into the lady you’re going to be. Even if you’re still stuck on “I wish I looked different!” take that to God. Chances are by the time you’re done, you’re going to start coming around. A good talk with our Father always changes things in our minds and hearts.

  If you want to comment this time, tell us where you are on the My Body Image scale:

  1  I still wish I was shaping up differently

2    I’m starting to get used to this new body

3   I actually like my new physical self — even if I don’t look like a Barbie doll

4  I’m fabulous the way God has me at this very moment!

Just so you know, I pray for you every time I finish a post. I LONG for every one of you to grow up completely comfortable in your own God-made skin. I YEARN for you to be able to snort at the “perfect image” that gets portrayed everywhere. I WANT you embrace being a young woman without ANY self-hatred. If you need help with that, just say so in your comment and I’ll be there for you.

Blessings,

Nancy Rue

Yikes! You’ve been busy!

Drawing by our own Asher.

Hello, my Tribelet of Precious Mini-Women! I came back today, ready to read all your comments and write you a new post — and there were so many it’s going to take me until tomorrow to read and respond and decide exactly WHAT to post. You’ve been BUSY on here, and I love that. Really, you’ve made the blog your own and that’s the best thing that could happen.

So here’s the deal. I won’t post tomorrow because I’ll be celebrating two things:

(1)   My birthday.  This is a BIG one so I’ve actually been giving myself a party for over a week now. Tomorrow is the big finale.

(2) A decision I’ve made in the past few days. I’m going to be doing more writing in the next couple of years than I’ve done recently and I had to make some choices about giving up things so I’d have more time to write. I was afraid that our blog was going to have to be one of them, but y’know what? I just couldn’t do it. You girls mean so much to me and to each other — why would I even consider stopping now?

SO … that’s where I’ve been for the last few weeks. Thank you for being patient. Thursday or Friday we’ll pick up where we left off talking about breasts and bras. Like I said, I want to read and respond to all your comments first because always, always, always this blog is about YOU!

See you later in the week. Oh, and in the meantime if you want to comment, tell us how you want to celebrate YOUR next birthday. Before you go into cake and candles and presents and ice cream, think about the fact that your next birthday will bring you closer to being a young woman. How would you like to mark that? Can’t wait to hear!

Blessings,

Nancy Rue (who has no intention of leaving you!)

 

CHECKING IN

Hello, my Tribelet of precious Mini-Women. I apologize for being away from you so long. A BUNCH of things have been happening — all of them good, but all of them nudging me to make some decisions. I’ll tell you about that next week when I WILL be back with a full post. See you then?

Blessings, Nancy Rue