Another area of confusion arises from the fact that human bodies are very rarely entirely symmetrical. Young people of both sexes are likely to find various bits growing out of proportion to others. Most of us have an arm or a leg longer than the other, and a hand or foot bigger than its twin. Boys will find one testicle hangs down lower than the other, and girls that one breast often outstrip its companion. It’s common (or a woman who has completed her development to find one breast is as much as a cup size larger than the other. In developing girls, this lop-sidedness is all the more likely.

Breasts are a particular source of pain and pride for young women. These secondary sexual characteristics are on show in our society, perhaps more than at any time in recorded history. When the daily newspapers with the widest circulation among young people show bared breasts every day, it’s hardly surprising that both boys and girls are very breast conscious. They acquire a standard by which they judge their own or other people’s breasts, without realizing it is a very inaccurate one. Breasts come in all shapes and sizes and textures. Some are small, firm and pear-shaped. Others are large, soft and apple-shaped. On some, the nipples point up, and on others they droop downwards. But, whatever their appearance, they are normal – a fact many of us do not recognize. In most in-up pictures, various tricks are used to idealize the body. Invisible tape supports the breast; ice cubes make the nipples stand out; and the blue veins or stretch marks that often show are concealed by make-up or neatly airbrushed out of the completed photograph.

Girls are frequently convinced that they are abnormal if their nipples do not stick out constantly, and do not realize that this part of the body is designed only to react to stimulus. The nipple is made up of erectile tissue. It fills with blood, swells and stands out if triggered to do so – by direct touch, by cold, by an emotional reaction such as fright or sexual excitement, or by exertion. At other times, the nipple can lie flat or even dimple inwards. Seeing they apparently different, and therefore inferior, to the model in the pictures, many girls are terrified they will be rejected by a boyfriend in the future. Worse, they fear that they will be unable to be a good mother to a baby and can become quite obsessed by their ‘inadequacy’.

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