Going by menarche, 12. Going by “where did all these curves come from in just two months”, 12. Going by “my ID is being rejected because I don’t look like that three month old picture any more”, 14.
I’m currently in the process of scanning old pictures and yes, it isn’t me misremembering: my pics from Christmas of 6th grade look like my 3rd-grade self, my pics from the following March have B cups and “childbearing hips”.
I’m told to expect that one about age 54…
I find that a lot of men think the same thing. I really don’t remember having one until sixth grade, when I discovered a book called “God, Sex, and You” which inadvertently taught me certain things…
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I’m not sure what to pick because mine took a loooong time
I started getting hairs down there around 11 I think. Pretty early, I guess. Underarm hair and voice breaking came a couple years later.
I didn’t grow a single facial hair until I was 19, though, and it has been filling in slowly ever since then.
Im 26 now and look really young for my age - about 18 or 19.
Why are pubescent girls so embarrassed to have breasts? Shouldn’t it be a show of pride that you’re a woman now?
9-10, defined by boobs and pubes.
Because pre-pubescent girls don’t like to be stared at, which people start to do when you get boobs.
And it’s not unusual for prepubescent boys - and other girls - to make fun of you and call you a slut just for having boobs. And some of those boys haven’t quite learned that it’s not OK to just grab them.
Age 8, third grade, first menstrual cycle. Boy howdy, was that a shocker!
The highlight of my life was 7th grade. My voice was a pleasant baritone, manly stubble adorned my unsmooth cheeks, and none of the other boys had hit puberty…but the girls had! I was very popular for a brief time.
Mmmm…Emily, Christina, Mary…I remember you well.
I’m mostly guessing.
I’m impressed that you can all remember when it happened. I have no clear recollection of my age at any particular point in my life, including puberty. The only thing I can clearly recall is that in freshman year of high school I was in a school play, and in the cast picture I came up to the shoulder of one of the women in the cast. At the end of my sophomore year I was in another play with the same woman, and I was about an inch taller than her. So in that year I grew, maybe, 8-9 inches; I would have been 15-16. I guess that indicates the majority of my pubescent changes, but for all I know the growth spurt happened at the end. It seems late, though.
I know I was rubbing one out on a nightly basis for years- maybe that started in middle school? Just a guess. If that’s true, it’s possible I began puberty at 11-12, if you assume that ejaculation is reflective of puberty.
ETA: I was getting boners since I was a little kid. I remember being about 6 and asking my dad to come into my bedroom because I had a question to ask him, and I was embarrassed about it. I told him that sometimes my penis gets really hard, and I was worried that there was something wrong. I only remember that age because very soon after that my parents renovated the attic and moved my bedroom up there to make room for my brother.
For me, I think it’s pretty easy to remember since I was the first girl to be tall, get boobs, and basically have my adult body by the time I was in the 6th grade. People who didn’t know me thought I was in high school, sometimes older. I stood out among my peers.
It’s funny to think back, too - I was about the third or fourth tallest person in my eighth grade class, and the tallest girl. But at only 5’4", I was never that tall, I just felt huge because everyone else was so much smaller than I was - and now as an adult, I’m kind of short!
I was definitely wearing a real bra by grade 4 - 9 years old. I don’t recall exactly when my period started, but I remember that grade 6 health class held no surprises for me, so it was probably grade 5 or the summer between the two.
I moved around a lot as a kid. It helps when you can date things based on where you lived at the time.
I for one WAS proud. Not only had I read *Are You There, God, It’s Me Margaret? *but I had also written a paper on Judy Blume, which required reading some book about the controversy of dealing with adolescent issues honestly. I’d also managed to get my hands on a copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves by that time (okay, I stole it from my Mother’s bookshelf.) Because of this, I was a bit more prepared psychologically than the average 9-year-old for dealing with early puberty, and I decided rather consciously that it was something to celebrate rather than feel ashamed about.
Yes, the boys could be really sleazy about it, but I didn’t take them seriously. I was quite an arrogant little snot at that age to be honest, I already thought I was smarter and more mature than everyone else, so it seemed fitting that my body would be more advanced as well.
Ha, I was one of the taller people in my sixth grade class.
I’m 5’3.‘’
Honestly, I miss being tall and knowing everything.
Because men stare at them and you are nine. Boys hassle you, grab them, talk about them constantly. If you show them girls call you a slut (yes, even when you’re nine.) Adults comment on them and draw attention to them, like its the only interesting thing about you. Until you got breasts, people talked to you about other things, now you are a walking, talking, freakish pair of breasts and nothing else.
They hurt all the time, and bras are sweaty and uncomfortable, and they ruin your balance at sports and make you suck at things you used to be good at (gymnastics, riding horses). Periods are messy, sticky, smelly disgusting things, and teachers won’t even believe you have your period because you’re nine.
What’s so great about breasts when you are nine? What’s so impressive about blood coming out of your vagina, when it makes you miss baseball practice? What’s so important about “being a woman” when you are JUST A KID??
I notice we have a nice, normal distribution going in the polls here. I love when that happens.
I wanna change my answer. I chose 12-13, but I’d say 13-14 is more accurate. Lady time first started happening at 13, but I was still flat-chested and overall very willowy. By 14 I had completely filled out (a lot of changed happened really fast!), and kept the same exact body type until the glorious freshmen 20 came and mucked things up.