What's Your Biggest Teenage Embarrassment?

By Elizabeth Angell, Allure magazine

There's something about the insults we hear during puberty that stay with us for the rest of our lives. You'd think the adoration of millions would ease the sting, but even celebrities remember those taunts vividly. This week, Queen Latifah spoke out about bullying and said that, as a teenager, she was picked on because she developed large breasts early.

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Latifah got the weirdness of being a teenage girl just right when she joked that "Later, I found that having big breasts was a really good thing." Janet Jackson also revealed that she suffered similar criticism when she was a child actress in the late '70s. "When I did Good Times, they used to bind my chest because I was developing breasts at a young age," said Jackson, who was 11 at the time. "It immediately makes you think, 'The way I am isn't good enough.' They thought I was too heavy and that I needed to lose weight. When I look back at the show, I was your average-size kid."

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I personally remember being teased in the seventh grade because I didn't wear a bra while other classmates already did. I was humiliated that I hadn't realized I needed this crucial piece of female equipment and I made my mother buy me several as soon as possible. I never again went out without one, but that uncomfortable feeling that I might still not have just the right thing on has stuck with me ever since.

What embarrassed you most about your body as a teenager?

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Photo Credit: WWD