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First Bra Buying Basics
7 Tips to Make the First Bra a Good Experience
By Melinda Copp
"I remember being the last girl in my eighth-grade class to get a bra," says Dr. JJ Levenstein, a pediatrician in private practice in Encino, Calif. "I had no breast development to speak of, and yet socially, it was very important to lose the undershirt and acquire the coveted bra. I'll never forget writing my mom a note to beg her to buy me my first training bra."
Even if your daughter doesn't show any signs of breast development, she may start dropping hints that her friends are wearing bras, or that she is interested in wearing one.
"Acknowledge her desire to fit in by taking her shopping," Dr. Levenstein says. "She'll always thank you for that."
Positive body image is an important foundation of self-esteem, self-respect and health – and body image starts to form early in life. Your daughter will learn a great deal about body image from you, so you should be conscious of how you express your own body image, especially during your daughter's development.
"This is a moment when Mother's body image and relationship with her breasts becomes so clear and modeled to a young girl," says Nili Sachs, a psychotherapist and author of the book Booby-Trapped: How to Feel Normal in a Breast-Obsessed World (Beaver's Pond Press, 2003). "My research shows that there is a general feeling of shame and anxiety in women, a need for perfection about their natural and healthy body, that unnecessary shame and anxiety is now permeating the attitudes of our next generation of young girls, modeling after their moms."
