Embarrassed about her bust

kunilou, I was in much the same situation as your daughter when I was in high school - I was five feet even, with C-cup breasts by the time I was 13 years old, and to my horror they got bigger later - with the exception that my father was the ONLY one who would talk to me about it or who actually managed to make me feel even a little bit better.

It never bothered me that my father had these kinds of talks with me; for me, it would have been much worse if my mother had. (It would have embarrassed her, which would in turn have embarrassed me.) But YMMV. It sounds like most of the women here did not have that kind of relationship with their fathers, and also you have to be the kind of person who can talk about sex calmly and comfortably. (My father is notoriously matter-of-fact about stuff like this. The stories I could tell…)

But don’t think there’s a magic bullet. I know my father, at least, always wants to say the ‘magic words’ that will fix all our problems, but there aren’t any in this situation. Nothing but time is going to solve the problems your daughter has with her body. It’s hard to explain, but big breasts are like this giant mutant fungus sprouting from your chest that everyone feels free to comment on. They’re sort of ever-present, obvious symbols of all the changes that are so embarrassing and hard to handle, plus being big-breasted really does alter your life. Guys do make comments, stare, etc., and I don’t think they realize how mortifying it is to younger teens. (Example: when I was about 14, I went to the gym at our local military base with my dad and mom. I was hesitantly working out on some Nautilus machines, feeling very out of place, when two Marines in their early 20s walked up and, with much nudging and leering, asked “Need any help with your CHEST…exercises? No, looks like you’ve already been doin’ some good ones!” I got up and ran to the women’s locker room and refused to come out. A female officer who happened to be in there got the story out of me and then went for my parents and told them what had happened. I know those guys meant no harm, but at the time - it was just world-annihilating. I can’t explain it, but it was.)

So you can’t fix this. She’ll get over it eventually on her own (unless she has lots of other body image problems also); college, coming up, will be a big part of that. In the meantime, if you have that kind of relationship with your daughter, you can ask her frankly: “What is it that bothers you? Is it what men might say? Is it being noticed? Is it that you don’t like the way you look?” She might just tell you, and these problems can be solved, to a certain extent - there are other kinds of clothes that mask it (though I am STILL partial to the potato-sack look), as people have mentioned. Self-defense classes can help build confidence and reduce fear, not to mention improving her posture, which has almost certainly suffered (there’s an instinctive hunching thing most women do when they feel self-conscious, and believe me, walking around like that 24/7 for years will screw up your posture and your shoulders).

Beyond that, you could tell her that other women have had this problem, and survived. Tell her embarrassing stories from your own teenage years, if you can - my dad did that for me and it made me feel a lot less alone, not to mention just making me laugh, and he also told me some (in strictest confidence!) about my older sister. Those helped, too. And tell her she can and should dress however she’s comfortable, that she looks good in anything (criticizing her clothes at this point will only make her cleave unto them further), and that you love her. Even if you can’t say all the rest of it, or if it would be better for your wife to say it, don’t forget that last part.

Good luck to you - and to your daughter. The worst is over for her, really; things will start to get better soon.

First of all, Otto da fe, welcome to the Boards! I love what you had to say. She’s a lucky kid to have you as a dad.

deepbluesea, my daughter and I already have a similar relationship, and she’s only 9. When she’d just turned 8 she asked me to explain tampons to her. Because…she felt more comfortable asking me, and knew I’d give her the Straight Dope. I’m not one to squirm with such matters, and she found out.

Having said that, as a normal healthy hetero( mostly ) male, I would be a fucking liar if I didn’t say I looked at adult women. Glaring endlessly? No. Conversing with their bustline? Nope. Doesn’t mean I’m unaware of someone’s physicality but then, I’m aware of someone’s physicality whether or not they’ve got a bustline.

I highly doubt that my daughter will have this particular issue to confront, large-busted Asian women are more rare than not. However, it doesn’t change the self-image issues. The " how do I present myself to the world so that I like ME as I move around that world?". I’ve no clue on that one, sadly. I hope I figure out something in the next few years. Although, in a strictly father-daughter sense, " Come here beautiful" is a loving and wonderful thing to say to your child. In my eyes she is and will always be beautiful, inside and out.

Cartooniverse

IMHO, your daughter doesn’t have a problem. She’s not wearing black because she is depressed or because of an outdated fad-she’s wearing black because people tend pay more attention to her breast than to her personality. If what she wears shifts others attention back to where she thinks it aught to be, I say drop the subject entirely.

A C cup is nice. Why is that small? Most boys hands are B cup in size & you know anything bigger than a handful is a waste. A C on someone under 5 foot is more than enough at this time.

I saw a young lass the other day, about a C, who put glitter on her cleavage. You know that glitter you can use on your face, she put it on her cleavage. I had to think twice about what she was trying to say.

She should be happy she doesn’t have bra straps digging into her shoulders.

Thanks handy! You just demonstrated a prime example of why women feel yucky around men who think like that.

Young ‘lasses’ IME tend to be much happier if they are not conversing with leches who think about whether or not she has a B cup or a C cup.

I guess at 4’ 10" I need to go and have a breast reduction because my tits don’t fit your criteria :roll eyes:

<<I guess at 4’ 10" I need to go and have a breast reduction because my tits don’t fit your criteria :roll eyes:>>

I guess if I had a brain reduction, I might still be attracted to the kind of guy who thinks my tits were made for his hands.

Nah. Would never work.

Corr
“The bad news is stupidity still isn’t painful; however, it is quite humorous”

Yuck, handy. I think you missed the point of the OP. :rolleyes:

To those of you who offered suggestions and sympathy, my thanks. And to those of you who pretty much proved that my daughter is not simply paranoid, I guess we’ll stay with black, dumpy clothes for awhile longer.

I can relate to your daughter. I’m a C-cup and a little over 5 feet. For a long time I did went the baggy clothes route. In all honesty, it’s a phase that she’ll probably get through. It’s disconcerting when people start noticing your physical attributes. It takes getting used to. It helps to have people in your life who don’t care what you look like, just who you are (ie loving parents, good friends, etc). Eventually, I grew used to the glances, stopped dressing to hide myself and started dressing to please myself. Eh, let 'em look. As long as they don’t follow me home it doesn’t bother me. But, as I said, its a process: moving from being a child to an adult, not yet fully accepting the adult body since inside you still feel like a child. As I said, she’ll probably pass through this phase and come out just fine on the other end. Tell her she’s beautiful whether she’s wearing black sweatpants or not.

Carina42, I’m aware of the OP, even though I had to read it a few times before I could figure out what it said. It’s tricky for a father to comment on her daughter’s body. That’s usually best for the mother to do, or a female relative. Just like for boys, it’s better for the father to teach them how to pee, then for a lady.

My father was pretty old when I was born so he had this weird vocabulary-broads, for example, which I kinda picked up.

Point being, handy, that kunilou is probably trying to keep the thought of boys’ hands on his daughter’s breasts off his mind and how to keep her self-confidence up. Vocabulary has nothing to do with it; context does.

Think, man, think!

kunilou, if I may say, I had the exact opposite problem of your daughter. I was pretty small all throughout school and was very self-conscious about it, much like it sounds your daughter is. I was teased about it unmercifully for years by a couple of boys in our neighborhood. The best thing was that my dad would always tell me I was beautiful, that those boys just knew they’d never get a classy girl like me, always complimented me, etc. It meant so much to me to hear that kind of thing from him.

I’m happy to report that I’m very satisfied with how I look now, wouldn’t change a thing and attribute a lot of my self-confidence to my dad.

You’re a good dad; hang in there.

Your daughter is really, really lucky to have such a great dad.

My dad cares about me, but I doubt he would ever be in tune enough to get what I was upset about or think he could affect it.

however it works out, and it will, she will know that you love and support her and that is more valuble than any fashion advice you will pick up here.

I have a C cup as well. And you know what I think? It’s absolutely the best size of all! You can downplay it all the way and you can play it up all the way - it’s all in the shape of your bra and the neck line. If she wants her bust to look smaller, she should

steer clear from turtlenecks and contour bras with padding,

and go for tanktop+cardigan duos and thin lacy bras that go in V-shape.

I think, besides the obvious guys-staring-at-her-chest issue, she might also be unsatisfied with it because her friends have smaller cup size, and so does her mother (it’s not the size that matters, it’s the fact that she’s probably feeling like a freak since she’s surrounded by cough less endowed women). In that case, that problem is likely to disappear once she goes to college and makes some new friends.

Ahh, if only those who regret their endowment could lend a cup size or two to those of us who are on the Itty Bitty Titty Committee … :slight_smile:

I have a friend who’s about 5’2" and a DD or so. She has a pin that says “Are these your eyeballs? I found them in my cleavage.” I thought it was hilarious, but to be honest I don’t know if that would make your daughter feel better or worse.

On the other hand, wearing baggy clothes all the time gives it that much more impressiveness when she wears something low cut. My best friend wore nothing but baggy tee-shirts all through high school (she’s a C-cup, but with a large rib cage that makes her look bigger). When she wore a form-fitting, v-neck velvet dress to Homecoming, I literally had trouble keeping my eyes off her cleavage.