Mom to Mom: A Word from the Weiss | Nipple Book
Top 10 Myths | Think Pink, Live Green

Introduction
Isabel’s Take
From Me to You
It’s not easy to talk to anyone about the changes your body is going through—especially the private changes. You want to know everything but you don’t want to feel uncomfortable learning about it. So how do you get answers to your questions? How do you find the reassurance that everything is going okay and figure out what to expect next? This can all happen in a bunch of ways. Someone in your family might take you aside for “a talk.” You might learn some of the things at school or from friends. A book might show up in your room that has a lot of answers (like this one). Or maybe you’ll see something in a magazine or on TV.

For me things were a little different. I grew up in a unique household. I’m not saying puberty wasn’t a confusing time for me, because it was. But because both my parents are doctors (as are three of my grandparents), medical information has always been easy to get. I never had “the talk” because I heard talk about bodies all the time. I also have a very close and open relationship with my cousins and aunts on my mom’s side of the family. Dinner conversations quickly get carried away, and we share lots of funny and embarrassing stories.

Years before my own breasts even started to develop, my mom and aunts would tell stories and pass down wisdom from their own experiences. Once my aunt Alice told my cousin Lena, eight, and me, ten, that when she was my age, she felt a bump in her breast. Worried that it might be breast cancer, Alice ran downstairs to tell her mother. Her mom—my grandmother—assured a panicked Alice that it was not breast cancer at all, but that her breast buds were starting to grow!

We all got a good laugh out of the story, but I had another feeling: huge relief! I’d had the same breast cancer scare with my breast bud as Aunt Alice did. That night, Lena and I stayed up late and talked and she said she had been scared too. Even two girls from a family of doctors could freak out about these big changes! From that point on, I knew how important it was to learn about what was going on with my own body; I did not want to be scared every time I noticed a change.

By the time I was eleven years old, I had read through books and talked to friends and family. But I was still not entirely satisfied with the information. My mother is a breast cancer doctor, so I figured that she mainly knew what could go wrong with breasts. My father is a pediatrician, but I wasn’t going to ask him anything about my breasts. Lena, at nine, had not yet started puberty, although she was just as curious about all the changes that I was going through. I also wanted to be prepared to teach Lena when she would go through puberty herself. Our joint fascination and eagerness to learn led us to create “nipple books.” These were books we kept that helped us explore and understand what was going on with our bodies.

That summer, I began to notice more and more how different women’s breasts were from each other and from mine. There were so many different shapes and sizes! I was already used to looking at human bodies in a scientific way because of my doctor parents, and this was like my own little observational study. On the beach and around town, Lena and I would observe the different kinds of breasts we saw, then come home and draw them in our nipple books. It was a fun way to spend time together and also to learn about our bodies.

You can see some of my illustrations here. Most of my illustrations were realistic, others more imaginative, but in recording the “findings” of our “study,” we came to one conclusion: every set of breasts is different and unique. It took me a while to realize that everything I had read about breasts and breast development applied to breasts that looked completely different. Lena and I thought that was pretty cool.

Then another question came to mind: how can you know you’re normal when every girl and woman around you have breasts that look different from yours?

I learned then, and have come to realize even more now, that every girl experiences confusion and shared fears about her body as she grows up. Creating our nipple books helped Lena and me relieve those fears and make the best of all of the changes. Turning our worries into laughs allowed us to enjoy those exciting times in our lives. We weren’t making fun of these different kinds of nipples and breasts; we were just being honest that the differences were there. Not everyone was going to look the same, and that was just fine.

It was five years later that I showed my nipple book to my mom. She thought it was great, and that just reinforced for me that my and Lena’s curiosity was normal. Mom was pleased and surprised that we had taken notice of all the natural differences among women.

Now that I’m 18, I flip through my nipple book and giggle at some of the silly drawings I made, but I also appreciate how useful it was for me growing up. I know that not every girl is able to ask questions, express her concerns, or share her fears as easily as Lena and I did. Having this kind of relationship was so important to me—and would have a big positive influence on any girl.

And that’s why I’m here for you. During puberty, your body can change faster than you can keep up with it, and it’s not easy to find the answers to all the questions you have. This book draws upon my experiences and my mom’s medical knowledge, and will help resolve your concerns and put your fears about breasts (your “girls”) to rest with fun, easy-to-understand, reliable, meaningful information. Peppered throughout the book are tidbits of my perspective, for a girl-to-girl view, plus tons of other girls’ stories, on all the subjects we cover. You’re probably full of ideas and stories too. Please share them with me and other girls at our Web site, TakingCareOfYourGirls.com. Helping each other makes us all feel strong, smart, taken care of, and comforted. It feels much better knowing that we’re all in this together. We hope you find our book helpful and enjoyable!