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Growing up, Stephanie Germino was aware that her family had a history of carrying the BRCA gene mutation, even though it wasn’t openly discussed in her household. Her mother and her aunt had preventative double mastectomies and opted for implants; her maternal grandmother had breast cancer twice. At the time, the potential consequences of testing positive for the BRCA mutation seemed pretty manageable, because, according to Germino, she was “an ignorant child who didn’t like her body” and was interested in getting her boobs done anyway.  Then Germino’s body underwent a series of changes: She took up bodybuilding, gave birth to a child, breastfed for a year—meanwhile, the threat of a positive test loomed larger in her mind. When she confirmed she had the BRCA mutation, she knew she would get a preventative double mastectomy to reduce her risk of developing cancer, and assumed she would get implants as well. It was Germino’s partner who reminded her that there were other options, and one day, while scrolling online, she saw someone with an aesthetic flat closure. Germino, who was always “very insecure about her chest,” realized that she wanted a flat chest too. Her surgeon attempted to dissuade her, and she had no real life examples to point to, but she continued to advocate for her preference.   Now Stephanie Germino has built a public platform for flatties, proudly posting images of her chest at @theebooblessbabe, and pushing back on socialized norms of femininity. In fact, she says, “not having boobs makes me feel more of a female,” adding, “I show up more feminine, I feel more sexual because I was insecure about my chest.”  Perspectives is a new series exploring the topics that shape women's lives today with honest, nuanced, and deeply personal conversations. The first season examines the cultural significance of breasts through intimate accounts and expert interviews, hosted by Allure’s editor in chief Jessica Cruel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“I really wasn’t speaking a lot about my personal life in my younger years,” Raven-Symoné told Jessica Cruel, editor in chief of Allure and host of the Perspectives podcast. But that’s changing now. Raven details the different pressures she endured as a young woman in the entertainment industry, from close scrutiny of the food she ate to the explicit expectation that she’d conform to a hyper-feminine aesthetic. For her, breasts are intimately connected to body image and weight management; she talks about shopping for hours in a day, afraid to go in the men’s section where she thought she’d find more comfortable options, instead looking for hard-to-find women’s clothes that would fit her breasts and her hips. Raven had two breast reductions before she turned 20, which she now regrets because, she says, “It was hastily done,” adding, “I wish I was stronger to say no.” Now, Raven is done with constraints. Accepting her sexuality, wearing the clothes she feels comfortable in, and surrounding herself with people who keep her from “having to perform,” Raven is creating a life that prioritizes being grounded. When asked about how she thinks about her body currently, Raven celebrates throwing away her fajas for good, doing 100 squats a day, and eating healthy—but still making sure to eat. When she thinks about her younger self, and how she could have guided her through the hard times, she says, “It’s gonna get better later…. You’ll take the brunt of what it looks like to be a thicker person in the industry; other people will come and make it super popular, and you’ll have to just hold the trauma from that time for others…. And if you look at the silver lining in it, it’s the strength, it’s the courage, it’s wisdom for another time.”  And, Raven concludes, “You were right: A toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese and tomato and a little bit of salt is delicious. You’ll be able to have it when you get older.” Perspectives is a new series exploring the topics that shape women's lives today with honest, nuanced, and deeply personal conversations. The first season examines the cultural significance of breasts through intimate accounts and expert interviews, hosted by Allure’s editor in chief Jessica Cruel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr. Lisa Cassileth is a breast surgeon in Beverly Hills, which, according to her, means encountering “so many bad boob jobs.” But repairing someone else’s questionable handiwork happens to be one of Dr. Cassileth’s specialties, along with innovative reconstructions and other thoughtful surgical developments that prioritize positive patient outcomes and well-being. Dr. Cassileth was the first female chief of plastic surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and has started two practices of her own.  “Women aren’t really getting breast reductions as much as they used to,” Dr. Cassileth tells Jessica Cruel, host of the Perspectives podcast and editor in chief of Allure. That’s largely due to the impact of GLP-1s. “[Patients are] getting breast lifts because after the weight is lost…it’s really now a skin problem.” Breast lifts are aided by an absorbable mesh, which can hold the breast in place while scar tissue and collagen forms to support the newly tightened skin.  Dr. Cassileth discusses this and other trends and technological developments in the breast surgery space, including improved implants, fat transfers for augmentations, the use of peptides for expedited recovery, and the influence of AI. Her office uses AI-enhanced modeling to preview surgical outcomes, but Dr. Cassileth and other cosmetic and medical providers are also facing the reality that patients’ expectations are being skewed by AI-generated images. “Even though I’m a plastic surgeon,” Dr. Cassileth says, “and I have a lot of tools at my disposal, not even natural humans can achieve what AI is achieving.”  Still, a lot can be achieved. Dr. Cassileth talks through the essential steps for safe and sterile breast reconstruction or augmentation, and explains why patients seeking breast reductions are her favorite to work with. She also details the expectations she has for mastectomy surgeons in hospitals, calling out high rates of mastectomy flap necrosis, which happens when skin tissue dies due to lack of blood flow, complicating reconstructions. “You can have plastic surgeons that are fantastic, but if the mastectomy surgeon who removes the breast tissue is still making a big line, or if the overlying skin dies at the time they do the mastectomy, because the skin is thinned out too much, then,” Dr. Cassileth asks, “how does a plastic surgeon do a good job?”  Perspectives is a new series exploring the topics that shape women's lives today with honest, nuanced, and deeply personal conversations. The first season examines the cultural significance of breasts through intimate accounts and expert interviews, hosted by Allure’s editor in chief Jessica Cruel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ericka Hart is in the next phase of her lifelong sex education. Starting as a curious and resourceful teenager, looking for answers to supplement her abstinence-only sex-ed class, Hart built on her knowledge when she was diagnosed, at 28, with breast cancer. Until her diagnosis, Hart had never really thought about her breasts. “They really felt like they were in service to other people,” she says. That changed post-treatment when she went topless at a music festival in 2016, publicly displaying her mastectomy scars: “I just wanted people…to see me and my scars, and to see what breast cancer looks like in Black, queer, and trans people.” She also wanted to challenge the cultural default that desexualizes cancer survivors. People would tell Hart over and over that she was so inspiring, which was nice, but, she adds, “I’m also pretty hot.”  That next phase of her education arrived when she got pregnant with her partner using IUI (intrauterine insemination) and gave birth. “I feel much different in my body now as a 40-year-old who is three years postpartum than I did after breast cancer,” Hart says. “I think pregnancy and childbirth truly rocked me more than anything I’ve ever experienced.” Now that she’s raising a child, Hart is aware of another change—the feeling that she wants to keep her body to herself, asking, “What’s for me?”  Ericka Hart is a sex educator, activist, and the author of Nasty Work.  Allure’s Perspectives is a new series exploring the topics shaping women's lives today through honest, nuanced, and deeply personal conversations. The first season examines the cultural significance of breasts through intimate accounts and expert interviews, hosted by editor in chief Jessica Cruel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You can’t talk about breasts without talking about bras. So Jessica Cruel, Allure’s editor in chief, went to the source: Dr. Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Dr. Steele is a pioneer in the field of fashion studies and that the clothes we wear–and what we wear underneath them–merit serious attention. She’s also the author of a book tracing the cultural history of the corset and how it influenced the development of other shapewear. Cue: the bra. Bras started to show up in the early 20th century as more women joined the workforce and pursued activities that required a broader range of movement and support. From torpedo-like bras to padded bras to more gamine bralettes, they are, according to Dr. Steele, “always in relation to the style of dress” that’s popular at the time and often attempt to balance looking “respectable” with being “sexually attractive.” Women, Dr. Steele notes, have always sought some form of shapewear, even if it's a rejection of the structure (e.g., bra-burning in the '70s). Today, as bra designers focus on balancing comfort with style, Dr. Steele highlights how there is still an impulse to nip, tuck, cinch, and lift the body. Allure’s Perspectives is a new series exploring the topics shaping women's lives today through honest, nuanced, and deeply personal conversations. The first season examines the cultural significance of breasts through intimate accounts and expert interviews, hosted by editor in chief Jessica Cruel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Actor Olivia Munn is no stranger to the spotlight, but in recent years, after the birth of her first child and a breast cancer diagnosis, things have looked a little different for her—a reality Munn is bravely leaning into. “When I get asked about any part of my health journey,” Munn tells Allure’s editor in chief Jessica Cruel, “it feels like I have purpose now.”  Munn walks Cruel through the physical and emotional challenges that came with the joys of her new motherhood. Munn was determined to breastfeed her son, Malcolm, but after working with multiple lactation consultants and trying acupuncture, supplements, and meditation, she turned to formula. Munn says she had “all of this guilt that ‘breast is best,’” adding that “breast milk is amazing, but that slogan is so difficult for women like myself.” She also wrestled with postpartum anxiety and its physical symptoms—waking up in the middle of the night, chest tight, heart racing—that soon did something “strange” to her brain, intensifying the loss of identity she felt during her postpartum break and financial anxiety about being out of the workforce. Two years later, at the urging of her doctor, Munn took the lifetime risk assessment test for breast cancer, and received a high score. After more testing, Munn was diagnosed with bilateral luminal B breast cancer. She’s had five surgeries since then, including a double mastectomy and reconstruction, and an operation to remove her uterus, ovaries, and fallopian tubes to reduce the risk of recurrence. “One question I have been asked,” Munn recalls, “is did I ever feel that my body was betraying me. That doesn’t make sense,” she says, because “my body is the thing getting me through this.”  Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool can be found here. Allure’s Perspectives is a new series exploring the topics shaping women's lives today through honest, nuanced, and deeply personal conversations. The first season examines the cultural significance of breasts through intimate accounts and expert interviews, hosted by editor in chief Jessica Cruel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For Allure’s Good Health for All issue, the comedians and hosts of the POOG podcast Jacqueline Novak and Kate Berlant discuss friendships—when they make us well, and when they don’t—with Allure writer Brennan Kilbane. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Allure's Content Director Jessica Cruel talks to lifelong activist Michaela Angela Davis, culture writer Zeba Blay, and award-winning journalist Dr. Ateh Jewel, who each wrote personal essays about “What It Means to Look Black” for The Melanin Edit: https://www.allure.com/collection/the-melanin-edit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are bringing you a new series from Allure: The Science of Beauty, where we answer the tough questions about skincare, hair, and more. If you love beauty and are curious about the science behind it, you're going to love this episode on stress. You can't always control a stressful situation, but you can control the way you — and in some ways, even your skin and hair — react to one. During this episode, Belisa Vranich, psychologist and founder of The Breathing Class, walks Michelle and Jenny through simple exercises that use breath to bring peace of mind. Next up is Amy Wechsler, one of very few humans to be board-certified in dermatology and psychiatry, who stops by to discuss the cruel and unusual ways stress can impact our skin and hair, and what we can do about it. Now, take a deep breath and press play. If you like what you hear, subscribe to Science of Beauty now on your preferred podcast app: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1531535720 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7mwxxPykxDZtCQRiqsdK0X Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/allure-the-science-of-beauty Or wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are bringing you a new series from Allure: The Science of Beauty, where we answer the tough questions about skincare, hair, and more. If you love beauty and are curious about the science behind it, you're going to love this episode on shampoo. As the old saying goes: An acid a day (or, uh, every few days if you're sensitive) keeps breakouts, fine lines, and dullness away. And no, we don't mean that kind of acid. In this episode, we're talking about AHAs and BHAs — the acids commonly used in skin care to help slough off dead cells and keep complexions bright. First, Michelle and Jenny try a product that proves how powerful acids can be — and completely gross-out their loved ones in the process. Then, dermatologist Laurel Naversen Geraghty (who — fun fact! — is a former Allure editor) stops by to help make sense of when and how to use these powerful skin-care ingredients. If you like what you hear, subscribe to Science of Beauty now on your preferred podcast app: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1531535720 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7mwxxPykxDZtCQRiqsdK0X Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/allure-the-science-of-beauty Or wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are bringing you a new series from Allure: The Science of Beauty, where we answer the tough questions about skincare, makeup, and more. If you love beauty and are curious about the science behind it, you're going to love this episode on acids. As the old saying goes: An acid a day (or, uh, every few days if you're sensitive) keeps breakouts, fine lines, and dullness away. And no, we don't mean that kind of acid. In this episode, we're talking about AHAs and BHAs — the acids commonly used in skin care to help slough off dead cells and keep complexions bright. First, Michelle and Jenny try a product that proves how powerful acids can be — and completely gross-out their loved ones in the process. Then, dermatologist Laurel Naversen Geraghty (who — fun fact! — is a former Allure editor) stops by to help make sense of when and how to use these powerful skin-care ingredients. If you like what you hear, subscribe to Science of Beauty now on your preferred podcast app: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1531535720 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7mwxxPykxDZtCQRiqsdK0X Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/allure-the-science-of-beauty Or wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are bringing you a new series from Allure: The Science of Beauty, where we answer the tough questions about skincare, makeup, and more. If you love beauty and are curious about the science behind it, you're going to love this episode on vitamins in skin care. You know vitamins as the micronutrients our body needs in order to function, but when applied topically, vitamins can have a profound effect on the health and appearance of our skin. In this episode, Michelle and Jenny learn about the man who first gave these micronutrients a name (he just so happens to have a very cool one himself) and tell the forgotten tale of the lost vitamins. Then, with the help of Dr. Frauke Neuser, PhD, Principal Scientist & Senior Director of Science Communications at Olay, Michelle and Jenny separate the facts from the fluff when it comes to vitamins and your skin. Yes, you should be using a vitamin C serum. And no, patting on vitamin D won't make your body produce more. If you like what you hear, subscribe to Science of Beauty now on your preferred podcast app: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1531535720 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7mwxxPykxDZtCQRiqsdK0X Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/allure-the-science-of-beauty Or wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are bringing you a new series from Allure: The Science of Beauty, where we answer the tough questions about skincare, makeup, and more. If you love beauty and are curious about the science behind it, you're going to love this episode on wrinkles. Let's get one thing straight: It's a privilege to have wrinkles. But if you want your skin to look as youthful as you feel, modern medicine has a few tricks up its sleeve, and injectables like Botox are chief among them. Ophthalmologist Jean Carruthers sits down with Michelle and Jenny to tell the truly unbelievable tale of how she "accidentally" discovered that botulinum toxin could smooth brows and erase frown lines. And dermatologist Melissa Levin shares the scoop on the most effective topical ingredients to treat every kind of wrinkle, even those pesky ones between your brows and along your neck. If you like what you hear, subscribe to Science of Beauty now on your preferred podcast app: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1531535720 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7mwxxPykxDZtCQRiqsdK0X Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/allure-the-science-of-beauty Or wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are bringing you a new series from Allure: The Science of Beauty, where we answer the tough questions about skincare, makeup, and more. If you love beauty and are curious about the science behind it, you're going to love this episode on pores. There are millions of tiny openings all over your skin — and if you didn't have them, you'd be dead. If that makes you feel squeamish, then cover your ears, because we've got dermatologist Sandra Lee, also known as Dr. Pimple Popper, in the house. The social media sensation and reality star walks Michelle and Jenny through how she extracted one gigantic blackhead from a single pore. After that, dermatologist Shereene Idriss joins the party to explain the misconceptions surrounding "poreless" skin and the best products to give your pores the TLC they deserve. If you like what you hear, subscribe to Science of Beauty now on your preferred podcast app: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1531535720 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7mwxxPykxDZtCQRiqsdK0X Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/allure-the-science-of-beauty Or wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are bringing you a new series from Allure: The Science of Beauty, where we answer the tough questions about skincare, makeup, and more. If you love beauty and are curious about the science behind it, you're going to love this episode on hyperpigmentation. Our skin is home to many tiny factories called melanocytes. They're responsible for producing the pigment that gives skin its color. But certain triggers like UV light can send those factories into overdrive, resulting in dark spots and discoloration known as hyperpigmentation. In this episode, Michelle shares a cautionary tale of some splotchy, unwanted mementos from one magical island vacation in her youth, and dermatologist Mona Gohara breaks down the best ingredients and in-office lasers to make them disappear. If you like what you hear, subscribe to Science of Beauty now on your preferred podcast app: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1531535720 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7mwxxPykxDZtCQRiqsdK0X Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/allure-the-science-of-beauty Or wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices