The inaugural season of Allure Perspectives will explore one of the most controversial and medically researched parts of a woman’s body: breasts. Through expert interviews, personal stories, and historical context, the podcast series, hosted by editor in chief Jessica Cruel, will examine how breasts intersect with beauty, health, identity, sexuality, and culture. In our final episode of the season, Cruel talks with Stephanie Germino, a creator and advocate who goes by the Thee Boobless Babe online. Germino shares the story behind her decision to get a preventative double mastectomy with an aesthetic flat closure, how being a “flatty” has changed her relationship with her body, and how she uses her platform to take up space for other people with the BRCA gene mutation. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts for new episodes every week.
Stephanie Germino, aka @theebooblessbabe, says her social media accounts are banned a lot. “I have had my account deleted so many times,” she tells host Jessica Cruel on Allure’s Perspectives podcast. “I have to send so many emails, cause so much ruckus to try to get my accounts back.” It seems that Germino’s topless photos and videos are what’s triggering the censorship, something she finds confusing since she doesn’t have the breasts, nipples, or areolas that usually go against platforms’ community guidelines.
A carrier of the BRCA mutation, which increases the likelihood of developing cancer, Germino opted for a preventative double mastectomy when she was 28. Instead of a breast reconstruction, she decided to become a “flatty,” meaning she got a procedure called an aesthetic flat closure (AFC) that creates a smooth, flat, nipple-free chest. “If a man can [go topless], why can’t I?” Germino says. “I have less than a man.”
Despite the bans, Germino has built a massive following online, where she makes a different type of ruckus to advocate for breast cancer awareness and bodily autonomy among patients. There, she’s found the growing community of “previvors,” people with a high genetic risk for cancer who have never been diagnosed with the disease. While some people don’t understand or agree with the decision to get a preventative mastectomy, Germino is confident she made the right choice. “I did this to be here long term for my son,” she says.
In the sixth episode of Perspectives, Germino talks about the three surgeries and two revisions she’s had since testing positive for BRCA, the types of reactions she gets online, how being a flatty has improved her relationship with her body, and why taking up space is crucial for her. Get a taste of the episode below, then listen to the full interview.
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