Scarleteen

My youngest sister came to me this morning, a little freaked out. She's 9, and starting to develop breast buds. It's kinda noticeable through her shirt, so she's been wearing an extra layer to hide them. She came for me for help, but I don't really know what I can say to calm her down at all, because I wasn't an early bloomer. I didn't need a bra until I was 12 (and quite honestly, in my opinion, I barely have boobs now)! What should I do? She says I'm the only one she told, and she doesn't want our parents to know yet. I told her it's nothing to be embarrassed about, but she still is. Our weather is going to be kinda all over the place this week, so she'll be able to hide them with a sweatshirt for most of it. But she's worried about when it gets warmer and she won't wear one towards the end of the week. What should I do? Any advice?

They sell crop tops as underwear for girls nowadays, maybe you could get her some? They're not bras, so they are suitable for young girls, but may still make her feel more at ease as she'll have some more coverage.

What does SHE want? That's really the best way to figure out what you can do.

If it's helpful, as an "early" bloomer myself (though in truth, anymore, 9 isn't actually that early for breast budding), and someone who wasn't into the idea of being feminized early by bras and the likes, I tended to employ a two-undershirt (what we'd call tank tops now) method, where I just wore one that was a little too small, and thus, pretty tight and binding, under another that fit me. I pulled that off pretty well for a while: I think by the time that my mother noticed enough to enforce (as one shouldn't, but so it goes) me to wear a bra, I was a B-cup.

But really, I'd be more concerned with why she's so uncomfortable with your parents knowing. Does she think they won't be respectful and supportive? Is she worried about teasing? What's underneath that? Because it seems to me that something you may be able to do for her -- if it's something she also wants -- is talk to your parents about handling puberty well and supportively so that she doesn't feel like she has to hide normal growth and development -- puberty -- from them, but can instead have them as another source of support.