Writing Pet Peeve #whatever and a half

[che_gilson]

Whenever female characters- inevitably written in first person- whine about their boobs. Always their LACK of boobs. As if this somehow makes them more identifiable to the average teen girl. I think this is the 'compensation' as I call it. We, as authors, are told not to make out characters too pretty which will alienate the reader. So as compensation- much like the ugly girl in teen movies who is a dog until she takes her glasses off- the main character in the YA novel of choice HAS to spend at least one paragraph explaining that she has small to non- existant breasts for the sole purpose of uglying her up.

Here's a novel notion-  make your character genuinely ugly and stop telling us that small breasts constitute a flaw! As if a flat chest makes us ugly, or less worthy. I had a lot more issues as a teen than fretting over my boob size! They were about the last thing on my mind. Am I completely abnormal? Do all girls prey to the tit fairy at night and I just missed it? Or is it another sad conciet by authors- something that has become another YA cliche.