"Boobs" is a

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

short story by

Suzy McKee Charnas Suzy McKee Charnas (October 22, 1939 – January 2, 2023) was an American novelist and short story writer, writing primarily in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. She won several awards for her fiction, including the Hugo Award, the Ne ...

. It was first published in ''

Asimov's Science Fiction ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine edited by Sheila Williams and published by Dell Magazines, which is owned by Penny Press. It was launched as a quarterly by Davis Publications in 1977, after obtaining Isaac ...

'', in July 1989.

Synopsis

Kelsey Bornstein's classmates bully her because she is the first person their age to grow large

breast The breasts are two prominences located on the upper ventral region of the torso among humans and other primates. Both sexes develop breasts from the same embryology, embryological tissues. The relative size and development of the breasts is ...

s. However, instead of menstruating, Kelsey becomes a

werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (from Ancient Greek ), is an individual who can shapeshifting, shapeshift into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a Shapeshifting, therianthropic Hybrid beasts in folklore, hybrid wol ...

Reception

"Boobs" won the 1990

Hugo Award for Best Short Story The Hugo Award for Best Short Story is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The short story award is available for works of fiction of ...

1990 Hugo Awards
at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved August 7, 2018 and was a finalist for the

Nebula Award for Best Short Story The Nebula Award for Best Short Story is a literary award assigned each year by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy short stories. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a short sto ...

of 1989.Boobs, by Suzy McKee Charnas
at

Science Fiction Writers of America The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, doing business as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association and commonly known as SFWA ( or ) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization of professional science fiction and fantasy writers. Whi ...

; retrieved August 7, 2018 Charnas noted that Kelsey is "pretty selfish and empathy blind".Closed Systems Kill: An Interview with Suzy McKee Charnas
by Joan Gordon, in ''Science Fiction Studies'' #79 = Volume 26, Part 3 = November 1999; archived at

DePauw University DePauw University ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Greencastle, Indiana, United States. It was founded in 1837 as Indiana Asbury College and changed its name to DePauw University in 1884. The college has a Methodist heritage and was ...

; retrieved August 7, 2018

References

Werewolf written fiction Hugo Award for Best Short Story–winning works Works originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction 1989 short stories Coming-of-age fiction {{1980s-fantasy-story-stub