Young Teen College Girl Without Brassiere

Teenage females have a higher rate of body image issues than any other female age group. Girls who are unhappy with their breast size are driving an increase in the number of breast augmentation surgeries. The number of women under the age of 18 who received breast implants more than tripled between 1992 and 2002, increasing by 24 percent of the population. Teens who undergo breast augmentation are at risk for a higher number of risks and complications and may require additional surgery sooner than older women.
Within Western cultures that place great value upon youth, bras are marketed to emphasize their ability to preserve a youthful appearance. The design of fashionable rather than solely functional bras has been influenced by changing fashions in outerwear and undergarments. The bra is sometimes viewed as an icon of popular culture that eroticizes female breasts as sexual objects.
• Tween market for bras
Marketing executives have invented the concept of Tweeners, girls from under the age of about nine to girls of 13 or 14 who have reached puberty, as a new niche for selling bras. The tween market has been defined by media like MTV, brand globalization, the increased amount of money controlled by children, peer pressure, and more separated families with guilt-ridden parents playing off against each other. Paparazzi coverage of celebrities of all ages have included reports of teen star Miley Cyrus going braless.