Bee Sting Breasts: Small, and Nothing Missing

Bee sting breasts are small: a gentle rise from the chest, with the nipple as the most noticeable feature. The name is affectionate rather than clinical, the small raised mark a bee leaves behind. Small is a size, not a shortfall, and this shape comes with more lingerie options than most people realise, once you know where to look.

What do bee sting breasts look like?

Side-on, the rise from the chest is short and gentle, with little fullness above or below the nipple. From the front, the breasts can sit close together or far apart, and the base can be narrow or quite wide. The nipple and areola are often the most visible part of the shape.

The chart numbered this tile 11 and drew it with a few light lines, which says something about how little of a drawing a small chest needs, and nothing at all about how much of a body it is.

How do I know if I have bee sting breasts?

If there is only a gentle rise from your chest, and a bra's cup is mostly empty unless it is small, you are probably here or nearby. The nearest neighbours are peaches, which are small too but rounder and softer, and saucers, which are shallow but spread wide across the chest. A small chest can also carry a rosebud areola. Your two sides may differ, which is ordinary; see One Breast Is Bigger Than the Other: The Honest Answer.

Does small breast size affect breastfeeding?

Size is mostly fat and connective tissue, while milk comes from the glands. An ultrasound study of breastfeeding women found that the proportion of glandular and fat tissue and the number and size of ducts were not related to milk production. Small breasts feed babies. If feeding is going badly, that is a question for a midwife, a health visitor or a doctor, and it is almost never about size.

Which bras suit bee sting breasts?

The honest problem with a small chest is not the body, it is the stock. Many shops carry very few AA and A cups, so women end up in a size that is too big and conclude the shape is the issue. It is not.

Find the right size first. A small cup on the right band fits far better than a bigger cup that gapes. The bra size calculator and the fitting guide will give you a starting point, and specialist brands make AA to A cups properly rather than as an afterthought.

Bralettes and triangle bras fit small chests beautifully, because they have no fixed cup to fill. Many small-chested women never wear anything else.

Soft cups and wire-free bras are comfortable and follow the shape.

Light lining gives a smooth line under thin tops if you want it. It is optional.

Push-up and padded cups add shape for a particular outfit if you ever want that. Nobody is obliged to.

No bra at all is an entirely ordinary choice for plenty of women with this shape, as it is for any other.

Sports bras: a simple compression style usually does the job.

For the cuts, see Every Bra Type Explained.

What does the folklore say about women with bee sting breasts?

What the folklore says. The Russian breast-shape lists that have circulated online since at least 2007, and that this chart is drawn from, give every shape a character. Here is what they say about this one, with the unkind parts left out.

Bee stings are the one shape the lists largely agree on. The bee sting woman is steady, loyal and calm, until something truly provokes her. She is attached to her habits, and her stubbornness is her strength. She is sociable, loves to host, runs a warm home, and seems to attract good fortune. Every list that includes her calls her faithful.

The name is older than the Russian lists. A 1940s American novelty comic, "Breastypes! What's Yours?", already had "bee stings" on its pages, as a joke.

Is any of that true?

No. None of it comes from a study, and no study we could find has ever tested whether breast shape and character are connected. The lists name authorities that do not hold up. The "Italian sexologist" is a real author of popular books on the history of erotica, not shown to be a sexologist, and the system credited to him changes from one outlet to the next. The "Japanese doctor" cannot be found at all. The "eighteenth-century Spanish" origin has no source behind it. Where the lists disagree, and they often do, they disagree completely. Read the box above the way you would read a horoscope: for fun, and about nobody in particular.

The short version

A small, gentle rise with the nipple most noticeable. Size has nothing to do with feeding a baby. Find the true size first, then choose bralettes, soft cups or light lining as you like, or nothing at all.

Sources

• Ramsay et al. 2005, Anatomy of the lactating human breast redefined with ultrasound imaging - tissue mix and milk production, read as an abstract.