Boobies! Nipples! Out of this World!!

The title of this post, while at once being what I feel is a truthful and sound statement regarding sweater kittens, is also an actual ritual exclamation that me and my best sleepover twin used recite in order to describe our 9-year-old awe at what might possibly befall us post-puberty.

After a swim at the pool, with our mothers safely out of earshot, we would do our ceremonial walk around the changeroom, making sure to stop pointedly at each of a dozen or so mirrors and, with slightly shocked looks upon our tiny faces, incant "Boobies! Nipples! Out of this world!"

Don't ask me how this started. Girlhood rituals can be mysterious things, even to their performers. What I do know, is that while there may have been a mild element of bewildered wonderment in these musings, there was also joy and appreciation for the possibilities of womanhood. A sort of tribute to the complexity that comes with having a more "developed" body, as well as a rejoicing in the mostly care-free existence of not being there yet--of being able to giggle and huddle together and to run around public spaces howling like mad women who shared a great secret.