“I don’t ask a lot of questions for a few reasons: (1) I’m afraid everyone already knows the answer and I’m just naïve. (2) If no one else is asking questions, I feel awkward being the only one asking. (3) It’s sort of a private topic that I’m not used to talking about out loud.”—Delia, 16

“I tried to check my breasts, but I got scared because it was a little lumpy. I thought I had breast cancer. But I wouldn’t know what normal feels like since I’ve never compared a cancerous boob to a noncancerous one.”—Trish, 12

“I’ve tried a bunch of times to talk about the fact that—hello, people—I could really use a bra, but no one seems to listen, care, or know what to say.”—Sasha, 11

“My friend told me I was flat as a board. She wasn’t trying to hurt me, but I felt a little insulted.”—Trinity, 11

These are just a few of the responses Dr. Marisa C. Weiss, acclaimed breast oncologist and president and founder of Breastcancer.org, collected during a recent poll of more than three thousand girls and their moms. As a woman, doctor, and mother, Dr. Weiss knew the girls she spoke with would have a lot of questions when it came to the topic of breast development and breast health. She was surprised to find, however, that girls—and their moms—had a huge list of worries and misconceptions about their breasts and what is “normal.” Seeking to give girls a safe and reliable resource for information, Dr. Weiss and her eighteen-year-old daughter, Isabel Friedman, wrote TAKING CARE OF YOUR “GIRLS”: A Breast Health Guide for Girls, Teens, and In-Betweens (A Three Rivers Press Paperback Original; September 2, 2008), a pioneering, comprehensive guide to knowing and understanding the “girls.”

Based on the research they collected, TAKING CARE OF YOUR “GIRLS” answers the most compelling questions girls have about their changing bodies, from “How do I know when I need to get my first bra?” to “Is there a perfect, correct, or average breast size?” Dr. Weiss offers advice at a medical and a motherly level while Isabel provides a peer-to-peer perspective.

Chapters include:

No woman is ever too young to start practicing good breast health. With one in eight adult women estimated to develop breast cancer during their lifetime, it’s not surprising that nearly 75 percent of girls surveyed have someone close to them with breast cancer.  The importance of knowing your “girls” both inside and out—and the real deal about breast cancer and how to stay healthy—has never been more important.

A comprehensive and supportive breast health guide, TAKING CARE OF YOUR “GIRLS” offers teens a safe place to seek out the answers they need, but may be too embarrassed or scared to ask in person. It also offers the women they look up to a source of essential, dependable information to help them answer the questions their girls are sure to come to them with. Smart and refreshing, every woman—no matter what her age—will discover something new about herself and her “girls” that she never knew before.

Taking care of your "Girls"
by Marisa C. Weiss, M.D. and Isabel Friedman
A Three Rivers Press Paperback Original
Sept 2, 2008 | 256 Pages
Price $15.95 | ISBN: 978-0-307-40696-5