I love my non-existent boobs after years of trying to make them grow… trolls say I look like a boy but I don’t care
HIDDEN away in the corner of the PE changing room, Lisa Banks covered her body fearing judgement for her "non-existent boobs".
She felt so humiliated by her "flat chest" that at 15 years old, she begged her parents for surgery, and took drastic steps when they refused.
Lisa bought bogus boob-enhancing tablets from magazines and even tried herbs allegedly used by men transitioning to women, both without any luck.
She even gained a stone in a bid to grow her AA-cup boobs but says it made no difference to their size and made her feel worse.
In 2019, Lisa decided she needed to love her body as it was, and purged her Instagram feed of the busty women with "perfect Barbie doll" bodies she'd idolised for so long.
It helped her learn to love her small chest - and now she proudly flaunts her figure to promote body positivity.
REAL LIFE STORIES
Lisa, now 31, tells The Sun: “I think my Instagram feed was toxic - it was full of bustier girls who had perfect Barbie doll shapes.
"When you get older you realise being unique and different is something to be proud of."
Lisa was a teenager when she started to feel insecure about her chest size and petite frame, and admits she felt particularly self-conscious at school.
While studying at a performing arts school in Ascot, Surrey, she dreaded dance classes because of having to get changed in front of her classmates.
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“I struggled throughout school," she recalls. "We were teenage girls and people would compare their boobs - I hated being the one with the least amount.
"I would get changed and try and hide in the corner so people wouldn't notice."
To hide her petite frame, Lisa dressed in oversized clothes and "always wore a padded bra".
She became obsessed with the bigger-chested women she saw in magazines and tried every tip she could find.
"I tried everything to grow my boobs," Lisa says.
"When I was 15 I asked my mum to take me to a surgery consultancy to get an augmentation and I tried to save up money for it.
"It was some kind of filler procedure and it seemed dangerous, so luckily my mum didn't allow me to do it.
"I purchased tablets from a magazine - they gave me acne and cramps, I had no idea what was in them. They could have been dangerous.
I purchased tablets from a magazine to make my boobs bigger - they gave me acne and cramps, I had no idea what was in them. They could have been dangerous
Lisa Banks
"In my mid-twenties I even went to a Chinese herbalist who gave me three types of herbs to grow my bust.
"She said it was used by men transitioning to women to grow boobs - it didn't work."
In her twenties, Lisa – who now weighs 8st 3lb – tried putting on weight but found herself "feeling worse".
She says: "Some doctors told me to gain weight but I eat well, and I stay the same weight and I am healthy.
"Once I gained a stone because I thought it would make my boobs grow - it didn't and I felt worse in myself."
“I carried on feeling I wasn't good or womanly enough."
'Toxic' feed
In 2019 Lisa came across a group of women with smaller chests online who dubbed themselves the 'itty bitty titty community'.
She gradually began to feel more confident in her own skin after finding posts by strangers who loved themselves and proudly showed off their bodies.
Lisa began unfollowing curvaceous women on social media, swapping them for people who looked more like her.
Her heroes include Keira Knightley and Natalie Portman - actresses who also have smaller breasts.
Lisa, who now lives in Syndey, Australia, says: "Everything shifted once I changed my feed and started to follow women who looked like me."
It led Lisa, now a social media influencer, to launch her own brand for women with small chests.
That same year she founded Itty Bitty, claiming she was "inspired" by her newly discovered community of body-positive females.
Now Lisa sells clothes for petite women and nipple covers called 'pasties' – enabling small-chested girls to not wear bras.
Lisa, who was born in Tokyo, Japan, trained at TAFE - a fashion school in Sydney, Australia - to become a garment technician.
She credits her partner Tommy Ge, 37, who works in fashion, for encouraging her on her journey to self-acceptance and love.
She now has more than 200,000 followers on her , where she shares body positive posts,
In one video she hit back at trolls who sent her cruel comments like "You look like a boy", replying: "But I love myself."
Lisa says: "I feel so good, I'm so focused on trying to encourage other girls to feel great in their own skin."
Lisa's six tips for loving your flat chest
PROUD Lisa Banks went from hiding her AA-cup boobs to flaunting her body online thanks – now she shares how others can feel great about their chest too.
- Follow women who look like you and fill your feed with them.
- Try to write down things you love about yourself, do inner work and talk to yourself nicely – you can’t control what other people say to you but you can control the way you speak to yourself.
- Journal your thoughts and read self-help books.
- Change what you consume in the media - stop following women who are making you feel bad about yourself.
- Work towards going braless or wearing a bra without pads.
- Try to make your own clothing item.
Find more of Lisa's tips on Instagram .