Bras for young girls

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pharmcat2000
Mom of 2 + 1

Member since 10/05

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Catherine

Bras for young girls

DD#1 is 7. She was quite exasperated with me last week, demanding to know when she was going to get a training bra. I was like Chat Icon WHAT??? I told her she'd get one when she had something to train. She told me that she does (she doesn't), and that she feels like she needs a "cup bra" already. So I gave her a choice for her birthday: a training bra, or an iPad Mini. She chose the bra!!

So, how many other young girls are wearing them?

What is your opinion?

This article was in the New York Times last week:

The Playground Set Gets Its Own Bras
Bralettes: Bras for Grade-School Girls Gain in PopularityBy RACHEL FELDERMARCH 7, 2014

Not long ago, Stephanie Sorkin, an author of children’s books who lives in Roslyn, N.Y., was faced with an unexpected request from her daughter Lea, then age 5.
“She came home from camp and said, ‘Why am I the only one not wearing a bra?’ ” said Ms. Sorkin, 43. “I was like, ‘If you don’t call it a bra, I’ll go to the store and see what you’re talking about, but a 5-year-old doesn’t wear a bra.’ ”
Actually, plenty of young girls are indeed wearing a bra-like garment: a truncated, half-camisole top with narrow straps and a bit of stretch.
“This is the new undershirt,” said Sandy Sherman, a buyer for several locations of Lester’s, a chain of stores in New York and New Jersey specializing in children’s wear. “It serves the same purpose.”
Lester’s carries a selection of stretchy bralettes by Malibu Sugar in two sizes: 4 to 6x, for ages 4 through around 6, and a larger version for ages 7 through 14.
“It’s for them to wear under a shirt to give them that extra layer,” said Jil Garcia, Malibu Sugar’s president and chief executive. The company’s so-called bra camis, which look a bit like the top third of a thin-strapped leotard, are sold in around 600 children’s boutiques in the United States and Canada.
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Two of the styles for young girls offered by Target. Mainstream retailers and well-established brands are also stocking bralettes for their young customers, including the Children’s Place, Gap Kids, Zara and Hanes. Target, which carries 65 styles of girl’s bras, offers what it calls crop bras as part of its Xhilaration line.
Old Navy has sold cami bras with a peace-sign print. The Maidenform Girls line, aimed at ages 8 to 13, includes bralettes in bubble gum pink; at Macy’s Herald Square, Maidenform’s pieces are sold in a section of the children’s department, near similar items from Calvin Klein Girls.
“It’s important for us to offer the best breadth of assortment to the customer, and in this case she really feels that it’s important for her daughter to feel comfortable,” said Josh Saterman, a Macy’s vice president and the store’s fashion director of millennial, which includes children’s wear.
Still, the idea of buying a children’s bra, even if it’s cupless and in a pink and yellow heart print, makes some uncomfortable.
“My problem with bralettes as opposed to other things that kids might want is what it does to a girl’s image,” said Lori Evans, a clinical assistant professor in the department of child and adolescent psychiatry at the New York University Langone Child Study Center. “Does it say to a 5-year-old that there’s something wrong with her, that she needs breasts or that there’s an expectation?”
Still, Dr. Evans said: “I wouldn’t be so horrified by it. If they start stuffing their little bralettes, then that’s a different thing.”

Message edited 3/15/2014 10:19:28 AM.

Posted 3/15/14 8:31 AM