#early-puberty

#early-puberty

Picture a 12-year-old girl who looked 18, towering over classmates, grappling with a changing body that seemed to have a mind of its own. That girl was me. I was strong, athletic and competitive at a time when female strength was often seen as unfeminine. I remember the sideways glances, the whispers, the constant feeling of not fitting in - not with the girls, not with the boys, not even in my own skin.

When my oldest daughter turned 9, her pediatrician said she could get her period within the year. I was blindsided: When I was growing up, girls expected to get their periods around the age of 13. I rushed out to buy a pack of menstrual pads to keep in her backpack, in case she gets her first period in school, and ordered The Care and Keeping of You, the iconic puberty book series that has sold 8 million copies since it debuted in 1998.