"It is a product designed for girls at that self-conscious age when they are just developing."

Because hordes of six-year-old girls are developing breasts and the way to make them less self-conscious is to give them bigger breasts? I just...that's not...

Logic. You should try it sometime.

What? Wait.... WHAT?

Uh..... "?"

Yeah, what EG said.

Big Fat WTF from me over here...!

Holy moly. I DID have boobies at 7, and the LAST thing I wanted was to make them MORE noticable! You know, because it wasn't like I was being sexualized at WAY too young an age to handle it all ready/snark.

Jessica,
I totally see your point here but I have to say, based on my experience growing up, I am not so opposed to this. I developed extremely early and had every kind of issue with my body humanly possible at this age. If for one, all the girls around me were wearing these to help make my development just a little less extreme by comparison, and for another point, if it somewhat helped hide my body at that time, it would have saved me a ton of distress. Anyone else with similar experiences or ideas on this?

Marissa,
I can see your point (see previous post), but for me, the issue was ADULTS and certain boys assuming breasts meant I was sexually active (yes, at 7) and therefore sexually "available." Honestly, I fear what would happen if these were worn by more girls.

At GapBody, where I once worked, they introduced a very similar bra aimed towards young girls. However, when I recently went shopping it seemed they had all been marked down and not getting replaced. I suppose they didn't sell too well.

In fact, they have another bra, 'the bralette', that I think is meant for younger girls for but in my experience they really only appealed to women with breast implants who told me they "fit perfectly because they have no shaping or underwire." Go figure.

Great, parents can pick one up for Precious right after giving her a bikini wax. Link

Ugh, people.

" but for me, the issue was ADULTS and certain boys assuming breasts meant I was sexually active (yes, at 7) and therefore sexually "available." Honestly, I fear what would happen if these were worn by more girls."

Tink,
You make a good point. For me my experience was that other girls my age were the ones with the issue and the assumptions about my sexuality. Maybe I just think if everyone had these it'd even the playing field. Either that or, if we are going to attend to a problem like this with consumer items, something more in the breast binding/extreme reduction area would have been a workable solution for me at the time.

I wear the bralettes from the Gap because I don't want any underwire or shaping . . . but not because I have breast implants. I just don't want to wear uncomfortable bras. I like my breasts the way they are, thankyouverymuch.

Now, selling them to 7 year olds? That's FUBAR.

Marissa, I don't mean to be insensitive to your problem, but are you actually suggesting that because YOU developed early ALL little girls should have worn padded bras to make you feel better? That's absolutely ridiculous. When I was 7 my chest was completely flat - being asked to wear a bra would have sexualized me at far too young an age.

I mean, should we have all women get implants to "even the playing field" so that girls with extremely large chests feel better?

Completely agree with Brinny.

8 yr olds getting bikini waxes! 7 yr olds wearing padded bras, it's crazy, unnecessary and sends the wrong message..."Cover up your body/rip out any trace of hair because you don't look the way others think you should"

Twisted. Geez. I can see having a non-padded bra available if a child developed breasts early, but *marketing* PADDED bras?! As one of my favourite cartoon characters says, "That's just SICK AND WRONG!" :)

Marissa, I can sort of feel your pain. I was diagnosed young with tactile hypersensitivity, which means my body is very sensitive to changes in temperature, among other things, and certain, ahem...body parts react more than others! When I was 10, I was wearing sports bras that were "padded" in the sense that they were made of a pretty thick material, and it just helped keep me from being embarassed.

OTOH, that bra in the picture is not only padded, it's also a plunge bra from the looks of it. What kind of plunging neckline is a 7-8 year old going to be wearing, I need to ask??

I have all the appropriate feelings of suspicion about the motives of the marketers.

However, I started developing when I was 8. Started--that's all. Then I was just "pointy" for years (really, until I was 25 or so!), which made yet another thing for other middle-school girls to talk about in front of my back.

I would have loved to have something to sort of camouflage the pointiness, so I can imagine there being a purpose for a product like this.

Unless it's that kind of foam that's already shaped like a stand-alone breast by itself, which is creepy whatever age you are.

You know what? I didn't develop until my late teens. So to even the playing field for me and to make me feel better about themselves(and my A cups), everyone else has to bind their chests flat. Just like in the roaring 20's. Sound cool? /snark

Sheesh. A product like this is scary, I totally agree that sexualization of young girls is a problem. I think maybe there's two issues, girls that maybe need or want a bra because they are developing young and there needs to be a bra that fits them, and a separate issue (which I would have fallen under) is girls that aren't developed but want to fit in (I don't like my word choice there, i know it's confounded but I can't think of the right words). I can't see that building a product for a specific need is necessarily sexualizing that child herself, that unfortunately may not rest in her hands, but in the hands of the boys that look at her and perceive "availability", as some commenters experienced. I worked with a woman who was torn about buying thongs for her 11 year old daughter, who was feeling immature changing for gym class because all the other 7th grade girls had thongs on.

My even the playing field/breast binding suggestions were mainly in jest. I actually think the real solution is social change, taking obsessive emphasis off women's bodies. How do we do this?

Marissa,
I see two issues w/ two possible "solutions"(and I put that in quotes because we work toward a goal, and can't just solve the issue as we would a word problem). One, any of us who care for children must ensure that we teach them that ridicule of others for being different is ALWAYS unacceptable. Two, we need to keep doing what is being done here and refuse to accept sexualization of children as part of our culture.

Also, of course, we don't buy these.

I would have loved to have something to sort of camouflage the pointiness, so I can imagine there being a purpose for a product like this.

My daughter is eleven and has worn a similar bra for the last year or so and this is why. It actually diminishes the appearance of her growing (pointed) breasts and camouflages the nipples. For girls at that awkward in-between stage it can help lessen the unwanted negative attention they receive from nasty middle school boys and allow them to freely wear a t-shirt without covering with a hoodie or cardigan. For many of my daughter's peers (not just the ones with precocious puberty) these changes are happening earlier and earlier.

Ugh. Combined with the story about 8-year-olds' bikini waxes, this is just vile. Some people shouldn't be allowed to be parents. Anyone who gets a wax and fake rack for their infant is in that number.

Studies show that girls who develop earlier have a harder time socially. So padded bras for young girls is actually a disservice. Why would someone want bigger boobs at a young age?

While other parents and young girls might find better uses for these bras, I don't think they were made for that.

I developed at an early age (and kept ON developing... 24 yrs old, FF cup, went up a size a few months ago... damn annoying and expensive in bras too!).

These things are not a good idea, at least based on my own experiences, which I appreciate will not be the same as everyone elses.

Seriously, I can see early developers like myself needing a training bra of some sorts, for comfort at the very least (seriously, I even have to wear one of those spaghetti tops with the support band in bed now), but why PADDED?

When I was that young, real bras felt immensely uncomfortable, and I remember being aware of the material catching on my tops, wrinkling around there. And yeah, it definitely go me attention even from adult men at that age.

Surely something thinner, cottony, and without the straps-from-hell that, at that age, I would've needed mummy-help to put on would be a better idea?

Why not? I hate bratz (my daughter never had one) and I live in Ireland and hate Tesco as well (for other reasons) but these bras are not some awful thing for girls beginning puberty (yes that's probably earlier than you remember). The do not make the breasts appear bigger, there's hardly any padding, they just help girls (many of whom are not emotionally ready for this bullshit)to minimize their breast. When they begin to develop they are often of unequal size, they protrude in a way that garners the worst kind of male attention and they are often quite pointy. I know many girls this age (and their mothers) and they bras are not to prematurely sexualized their daughters (fucking early puberty has done that) but to provide them a way to minimize and control their appearance during this time. If a girl is pre-pubescent, I understand the reaction, but many girls are going through puberty at eight and these concealing bras (and that's what they are) allow girls to feel more comfortable as they adjust to their new bodies. Certainly many here have forgotten how merciless school can be.

I worked with a woman who was torn about buying thongs for her 11 year old daughter, who was feeling immature changing for gym class because all the other 7th grade girls had thongs on.

Yikes. And I thought it was bad that when I was in seventh grade and still flat as a board, some girls came up to me in the locker room before gym class and disgustedly told me I really should wear a bra, especially since I was changing in front of other girls. (In response, from then off I changed shirts facing into my locker instead of busting out an unneeded bra.) And that a boy approached me in gym class the same year and told me I needed to shave my legs. ("Actually, I don't; I'm eleven and blonde," I responded, albeit awkwardly.)

Girls will always have their homegrown ways of playing grown-up -- like when my childhood best friend and I put on bathing suit tops and carefully stuffed rolled-up socks in them before going to see Pocahontas at the cinema. But when those rites get co-opted by ad campaigns, they cease to be pubescent gestures and become downright creepy.

And "discreet?" Ugh, ugh, ugh. Way to make girls feel ashamed of their bodies before they're even women. Bodes magnificently for adulthood...

Wow. Just... wow.
I started wearing bras in fifth grade. Not that I had anything to support, but because I wore a uniform to school that involved a white shirt, so I wore a bra to make sure nothing showed through. It was plain white cotton. No clasps. No wire. I think some elastic at the bottom? It was probably the most comfortable bra I've ever owned.
I just honestly can't believe a mother would buy that for her six year old. I wasn't allowed to wear spaghetti strap tops until I was in sixth grade.

Certainly many here have forgotten how merciless school can be.

Many of us remember all too well. That doesn't mean that putting fake boobies on a six-year-old is a appropriate solution.

"I mean, should we have all women get implants to 'even the playing field' so that girls with extremely large chests feel better?"

I agree. I mean, I hated getting bullied for the hair I got for being an Iranian-American girl, but I didn't want to turn around and force the Chinese-American girls in class to grow arm hair...

"'I would have loved to have something to sort of camouflage the pointiness, so I can imagine there being a purpose for a product like this.'

"My daughter is eleven and has worn a similar bra for the last year or so and this is why. It actually diminishes the appearance of her growing (pointed) breasts and camouflages the nipples."

Good points.

"The do not make the breasts appear bigger, there's hardly any padding, they just help girls (many of whom are not emotionally ready for this bullshit)to minimize their breast."

Oh, OK. So they're like those bras made for women with very large breasts who want their breasts to seem smaller?

First, where did "six" years old come from? I missed it in the Tesco link.

Second, I specified girls starting at eight, which is becoming a common age for the onset of menses.

Thirdly, what grown women refers to breasts as "boobies"?

I understand the issue of needing an immediate solution to deal with the culture you're living in, such as making sure your young developing nipples aren't showing or that your uneven/pointy/whatever breasts aren't made fun of by classmates. But really, what I would love to see is young people learning that there are a huge variety of bodies and body parts out there, including breasts.

Not all pointy breasts disappear with further development, some stay pointy. Some start out round, some get round later. Some are shaped more tubularly, and others can have a pretty big size differences between left and right. There are tiny breasts, huge breasts and everything inbetween. And that's to say nothing of nipple variation...but you know what? There's nothing wrong with any of these variations. I don't know, I just feel like there's always some "trendy" shape of the moment for breasts, I mean...pointy used to be *in*.

Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is that I wish more young people, especially self-conscious young girls, were exposed to the variety of shapes and sizes that exist out there. If we weren't all required to cover up and use homogenizing bras (i.e. those "lightly" padded, pre-formed foam cups that are so popular now)...maybe more girls would realize earlier that there's a huge variety of normal breasts and they could stop agonizing over how well their own breasts measure up to the cultural ideal of the moment.

I wear those bras. I love them. I'm 37 and a AA cup.

They aren't padded so much as lined. They are what is sometimes marketed as t-shirt bras so that your boobs are smooth. While it may be ridiculous to pretend women don't have nipples, I don't like people looking at mine. I'm guessing a lot of young girls also don't like people looking at their nipples.

"Oh, OK. So they're like those bras made for women with very large breasts who want their breasts to seem smaller?"

More like... less likely to get attention. There's only so much, "want some soft serve with those cones? haha" you can take at nine or ten. They make the developing breasts into two, round, small even humps that don't jiggle or have protruding nipples. No more, "are you trying to poke my eye out? haha" "Is it cold in here? haha" This kind of talk is utterly mortifying when you're just a kid.

Of course, it would be great if girls didn't go through puberty so young, if people were accepting of natural changes and different types, if boys weren't permitted to make lewd comments to shame and embarrass...but that's not the world in which these children live.

I understand that this story was cast in a hyper-sexualization of children light (something I'm acutely aware of) but I wanted to point out that ironically most of the girls I know who choose these undergarments do so for the opposite reasons.

It's called an UNDERSHIRT. *huff* What's wrong with these people?

K, do you have a link to a study that shows 8 years old being the now common age for onset of puberty? I have a feeling that you see your daughter and a few of her friends, and are extrapolating that to the rest of the world. Yes there were probably two girls in my group of 20 or so that started growing breasts at around 8, but most of us didn't get anything that was noticeable until 6th or 7th grade. By that point, there were probably 7 girls who actually needed underwire. Besides which, I don't see how underwire is going to make breasts less noticeable on anyone, and if I had an 8 year old daughter who had begun to develop breasts and just wanted to camouflage pointy-ness, we'd get her a sports bra.

what grown women refers to breasts as "boobies"

One who is making fun of bras directed at six-year-old girls and is therefore using six-year-old girl language. It's called tone. Learn to pick up on it.

Further, I doubt that 8 is current common age of menarche. It may have been for you, it may be for your daughter. But I know several 8-year-olds and not one is anywhere near puberty. So I too want some studies.

where did "six" years old come from? I missed it in the Tesco link.

You're so right. I meant "seven." Happy now?

Ugh. The bra in that picture has underwire, and it looks like it's one of those bras that will stand up on its own. MY first training bra was just two cotton triangles, really. Can't remember how well it reduced "pointyness" but it at least disguised my nipples. My next bra was a sports bra that lightly compressed my boobs.

I guess people have had different experiences than me, but I've never gotten grief for pointy boobs. It would majorly piss me off if they had. People just need to learn to accept girls' bodies instead of trying to change them into what they think they should look like.

"do you have a link to a study that shows 8 years old being the now common age for onset of puberty"

I'm not agreeing with K in the slightest (this is...disturbing, for lack of a better word), but precocious puberty is becoming increasingly common. (Actually, breast development by 8 isn't technically even precocious puberty, just a little earlier than average.) Some people have suggested hormones in food, medications, and pollution, but no study's been very definitive.

I knew a few girls who started developing that early. Not much mind you, but enough that everybody noticed. I started at 10, and it was really just swollen nipples. I wore a training bra so that they would be smooshed down a bit.

It's hard to say what might be causing earlier puberty (and in my case, extreme tallness). Growth hormones in food is very unlikely because a hormone is simply a protein, and it would get digested in the stomach. If some did manage to get into the blood stream, it would be very negligible compared the the growth hormones already in a growing kid's system.

Sheesh, when I was younger and self-conscious about my itty bitty developing breasts I wore elastic cotton crop tops - no adjustable straps, no clasps. I was better off than the girls who wore "real" training-bras because the boys would run around snapping their bra straps and generally harassing them. My top was undetectable and unsnapable. So I say booo to "discreet" molded-cup T-shirt bras for 7 year olds.

The only hassle I ever got over bras or body hair was from other girls, so the less we teach little girls that they're expected to wear bras and shave before they've even hit menarche the better.

That looks like the type of bra I would wear now, and I'm fifteen!

Although I find the entire concept of six year olds wearing bras weird (what six year old has breasts) I do understand that some OLDER girls might want to wear sports bras or shelf bras for comfort.

MY first training bra was just two cotton triangles, really. Can't remember how well it reduced "pointyness" but it at least disguised my nipples. My next bra was a sports bra that lightly compressed my boobs.

Oh my god. Did I just find my exact double???

Forgive my ignorance, but I don't know what anyone means by "pointyness." I've never experienced this. Or maybe I did and I just didn't notice. Is this something that happens with girls who eventually develop larger breasts? I'm just a 34 A, so maybe it's less noticeable if you're small on top?

The thing is, to return to my "logic, you should try it, comment," is that if you have small or non-existent breasts, such as the sort six-year-olds (don't) have, then an undershirt will do nicely to smooth out any nipple action, create a smooth and "modest" line, and generally cover shit up. How do I know? I'm a fucking 32A, and I don't wear bras. I wear undershirts.

Several people have brought up the point (ha, ha) that all kinds of breast shapes should be accepted as beautiful. However, one problem with pointiness is that nipples are sensitive. If they're sticking out, they're brushing against clothing, which can get uncomfortable over the course of the day. So I like some kind of unshaped bra or tight camisole to smooth them down.

If these bras are actually meant to minimize pubescent breasts rather than overemphasize them, then OK. Though I still think the sports bra route is more practical, and probably cheaper.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: If you need to cover up a six years-old's non-breasts in order to feel like she's being "discreet ," there's something wrong with the way you look at six year-old girls.

bingo.

oy w/ the poodles already.

I'm 23 and to this day I have little (pointy) boobs; I think the boob fairy skipped my pillow as a teenager ... but when I was about 7 or 8 I was really paranoid about my nipples showing. But a sports bra did me just fine for a couple of years. Not to mention they were comfortable.

I developed at an uncomfortably young age (not 7 thank goodness), but I would not wish that on ANYONE! (and for most girls that develop early an undershirt will just not cut it.) So, some 7 year olds may need a bra, but it seems like it should be more of a specialty item, not something that is mass produced and publicly marketed.

So the Telegraph article says the following:

the bra is located in the 7-8 year-old girl section of the store

"It is designed to cover up, not flatter, and was developed after speaking to parents.

"It is described as a padded bra for trade description reasons."

Erm. It sounds like they have good intentions - at least in their PR, but when I started developing breasts at 7-8ish this is the last thing I would have wanted. It looks kind of bulky and I wore tank tops under my shirts to hide the fact that I was wearing a bra. I definitely didn't want underwire. What would be nice is a more bralet type thing that's well lined (not padded!)to minimize, smooth, even out or do whatever it is girls need to calm their insecurities. And let's face it - it will take a lot of work, and probably a long time for pubescent girls not to be insecure about their developing breasts.

"t's hard to say what might be causing earlier puberty (and in my case, extreme tallness). Growth hormones in food is very unlikely because a hormone is simply a protein, and it would get digested in the stomach. If some did manage to get into the blood stream, it would be very negligible compared the the growth hormones already in a growing kid's system."

Like I said, there's not been a definitive study yet, but hormones can and do get from food to the bloodstream. Not all hormones are proteins; sex hormones, for example, are steroids and are absorbed into the blood (like other steroids such as prednisone). Even if there were a small change from food, there are enough feedback loops involved in puberty that it could impact its onset.
I also forgot, high body fat can also cause precocious puberty, which is what I'd put my money on, given the rise in childhood obesity in the last decade or so.

Since when is underwire designed to "cover up, not flatter"? All of the underwire bras I have had provide a lot more lift than softcups.

I started developing breasts at a fairly early age. When I was 7 or 8, I started wearing undershirts every day. A couple of years later, my mom made me start wearing bras. I HATED it. There was only one other girl in my class who had to wear one, and she had been left back a year. Wearing a bra when other girls didn't need to did not make me feel as if my developing body was less noticeable -- it was more so. Everyone knew that I wore one. Boys would pat me on the back and chuckle to one another when they felt my bra strap. Girls would say that I didn't really need one, I obviously just stuffed.

I would be very reluctant to buy a bra like the one pictured for a 7 or 8 year old based on the experiences I had when I was 9 or 10. I think a camisole with shelf support probably would have done the job for me at that age, but I didn't know about them back then and mom insisted on a bra. I would much rather see something like that marketed to girls who are developing early. It would provide light support, hide nipples, and probably wouldn't cause added torment from classmates.

K-

I call them boobies and I'm 25! I'm also irrepressibly silly and cannot keep a straight face when naked with another person. Mammary glands (at least in my case) are big, floppy, sensitive mounds of fat and other tissue that wobble and jiggle and when treated nicely make me smile and gasp. Of COURSE I have a nickname for them (even if it's a common one)!

Boobies boobies boobies!

Maybe I'm out of touch, but this doesn't seem that wild to me. I developed early, too, and actually, I think it would have been nice if I could have found a minimizer bra in the girls' section, instead of having to go to the adult women's bra area, which was mortifying.

No, there aren't that terribly many girls who will need one of these, but I don't think it's the appropriate course of action to just ignore 7 year olds who develop breasts, and make them find some specialty store to get a bra, either. If it's right there in the regular store's girls' section, maybe they won't feel like quite so much of a freak. Which I did at that age.

"If it's right there in the regular store's girls' section, maybe they won't feel like quite so much of a freak."

...and maybe other girls who shop there won't think they're quite so freaky.

As a mother of a 9 year old girl, I've noticed, with distress, the trend towards 'sexy' or as i call them 'hoochymama' clothes. and Bratz is the *worst* offender. i so hate the bratz dolls & won't allow them in my house. and it has NOTHING to do with the fact that their ethnic, but has EVERYTHING to do that they look like little ho's. thankfully my daughter prefers clothes that are more tomboysish & have flaming skulls on them etc. but i dread the day when she needs a bra. there is NO reason for a young girl to wear padded bras. modesty my ass. i developed when i was my daughters age of 9 & needed a bra by the time i was 10. my own mother bought me a padded bra for the sake of 'modesty' and honestly, it just made it worse. nothing like being a ten year old girl with 15 year old looking boobies. i was teased, accused of stuffing, poked, pinched you name it. it was awful. so after much begging my mom got me non-padded bras & i wore baggy shirts the rest of my school years. more padding is the LAST thing little girls need!

Man, I feel like my early boob education was particularly well-rounded. *BA dun BUM-Ching*!

My best friend in middle school was a C cup by the time she was 10. Yes that was unusual, she got a reduction when she was a FF by the time she was 16. I however would have killed for one of these WHEN I WAS 12 as I was flat as a board until I was about 13. I felt left out. My other best friend had a very pointy B cup at 13 and remained that way. The pointiness does happen, but not everyone develops like that.

However these do seem aimed at creating cleavage in 7-8 year olds, the listed marketing range. This quote is rather revealing

"The bra is modelled on a plunge style - it has a very low bridge connecting the cups. It means the shape and position is lower to expose the breast tissue."

That sounds very much like it's meant to lift and fluff, to create cleavage where there is none. It's exactly how drag queens get that effect.

I'm all for having things on the market to help make girls more comfortable, but this particular product seems designed to assist in sexualized dress up. If it were simply to camouflage nipples, a normal concern, I don't the the teacher's and children's groups would be up in arms over it.

Without minimizing the concern about oversexualizing children, are we sure this is in fact what's going on?

This post discusses six and seven year olds. Is that realistic and reasonable based on the article? Looking at the bra being posted, it's a size 30A. Knowing grown women who have a chest size of 32, 30 seems a bit large for 6 or 7 year olds. In fact, on sizing charts I find online typically show chest sizes of 30" for ages 11-12. One chart even says 11-12yo is only 28".

One site showing sizes for 7yo says Chest: 25.75"

At eight, my almost-there breasts were extremely tender when fabric would rub against them, especially in the cold. I remember walking home from school in the winter crying because of the pain. My mom eventually fashioned some training bra pads out of an old, soft sweatshirt. I would have loved something with more discrete padding to make life less miserable back then.

This looks like the kind of padded bra that adult women buy, because they want to look like they have larger breasts than they actually do.

I can understand wanting a very basic type of bra for young developing girls to diminish "pointiness" and jiggling, but you can do that with a bra that's more like a sports bra. These stiff, padded cups with the plunging neckline look like they are designed to create the appearance of more pronounced cleavage. What girl at the stage of "developing" needs that? All that will do is attract more stares toward her chest, which will look much older than the rest of her does.

I developed early too, I had to start wearing a bra at age 9, and yes, boys teased me about it, which was humiliating. By age 15 I was wearing baggy, loose shirts all the time, mostly because my chest was getting a lot of attention from older guys and even grown men, and it made me very uncomfortable. I was nowhere near ready to handle that.

Yknow, I got the "pointy" chest in 5th grade and that's all I've had for the last 16 years. I don't want to "camouflage" them or push them up -- I would just like the world to accept that some boobs are small and pointy. I don't see how this product would help girls become more comfortable with their bodies. It will just change the anxiety from "I wish I had that girl's chest" to "I wish I had that girl's bra" -- which you know is exactly what the marketers hope for.

It's not fair. There's padded bras for small girls and no decent unpadded bras for adult women:D

That is so fucked up. Me and my boyfriend were at target a while back and we were absolutely APPALLED at the bras that look like they are for women in the little girls section. We assumed it was because young girls are developing faster now than ever, and they needed more support/comfort.

I wasn't referring to padded bras, but mostly the underwire grown-up looking bras.
But padding is pretty ridiculous..although I understand I don't think it is a good idea because like a poster up there said, it will only change the anxieties of puberty not diminish it.

I started developing around the age of 12 and I got those little pointy nipples too and I was so embarrassed by them. I don't know why... but I think it had to do with the fact that I wanted big boobs. Our culture is so fucked up when your 12 and want big boobs already.

How is wearing a padded bra going to make you feel discreet? That's just going to add to the nothing isn't even there. There are other ways to fix the problems of developing breasts than to give these kids a padded bra. By seeing another girl with a padded bra and larger looking breasts, it's only going to cause more body anxiety within their group. If girls start with buying these types of bras, then what's the next step? Lingerie?

Society keeps pressuring girls to have this perfect body, but do they need to be sending the message to 7 year olds? Let the kids be kids and not have to worry about wanting bigger breasts.

"I also forgot, high body fat can also cause precocious puberty, which is what I'd put my money on, given the rise in childhood obesity in the last decade or so."

One of my aunts once told me that she'd seen some studies saying 105lb is the average weight at which menarche is triggered. I was about that weight and 14 when I hit it. One of my friends (who is overweight) couldn't believe I was just starting at 14, since she started when she was 9. I'm guessing her being overweight is the reason.

I still think under 12 is early.

I'd be pissed at this sexualization of young girls if I didnt buy these bras for myself. I cant buy bras in big girl stores because, of course, if they offered small sizes women would starve themselves to fit in them, so a lot of my clothes come from the childrens section.

In discussing the padded bra issue I think that it is important to also bring up the fact that the clothes in general that are being marketed to young girls is inappropriate. Little girls should not be wearing tiny little short shirts or tops where their "cleavage" is showing. At what point are manufacturers going to realize that they are creating an unhealthy environment for young girls and that all of this clothing is forcing our girls to grow up entirely too fast. Let kids be kids. They should be worrying about having fun and playing outside, not whether their private parts are showing because the clothes they are wearing are too mature for their bodies.

"At what point are manufacturers going to realize that they are creating an unhealthy environment for young girls and that all of this clothing is forcing our girls to grow up entirely too fast."

Retailers only offer what is most likely to sell at a profit. It is the parents that are buying/allowing children to wear clothes. Modest, age-appropriate clothes are still widely available. I have a 9-year old and have no trouble buying clothes.

If anything, I think it is nice there are so many choices now. When I was growing up, you were girly (dresses) or a Tom-boy (jeans). I liked dresses, but I also liked swinging from monkey bars so I went with the jeans. I was thrilled the other day to see frilly spandex shorts marketed toward girls who want to wear dresses and swing on monkey bars without showing their underwear. Taken alone, the spandex shorts could be considered too risque for an 8-year old. But it allows more self-expression in a child, which I see as a good thing.

Likewise, the hip-hugging leather pants and halter tops in the kids section. For some girls, that is how they are. How is it right for them to be forced to wear a polo and khakis because it makes adults less tense? If a girl feels better about herself wearing a padded bra, salwar kameez, or mini skirt, isn't it wonderful she has those choices?

Of course, being pushed toward any of those by aggressive marketing is a different issue. In a perfect world, parents would know their children and help them make decisions in their appearance based on the image they want to project and what makes them happy. I do think that happens more often than not.

I think it is wonderful that even young girls have more options available to them to express who they are and who they want to be. Adults who are bothered by children who dress other than how the adults think they should may be projecting their own issues.

Every child is unique. Every body is different. Every childhood is filled with different experiences. The more options available for them all, the better.

In full disclosure, my 9-year old will wear nothing but jeans, loose tee shirts, and polos. We have no trouble finding clothing. Modest clothing is still the norm in the kids department. Exceptions just stand out.

kultakutri - that is so true! I hate that they make C cup and above bras with padding! There are so many gorgeous bras I want but can't buy because they have so much padding. My Ds don't need any padding!!! And Victoria's Secret is claiming it's being revolutionary with their new bra that has padding relative to the cup size so that A cups have more and D cups don't have much. Revolutionary? How about logical!!!!

When I was that age, I was more concerned with catching fish. I didn't even worry about boobies until I HAD them!

HEY! An article on feministing I agree with! Who'd have thunk?