The Body Book (Paperback)

Chapter One

Sixty queens there may be, and eighty concubines, and virgins beyond number; but my dove, my perfect one, is unique. (Song of Songs 6:8-9)

It's either happening already, or you've heard that it's going to:

You're growing breasts.

Hair is appearing in new places.

You're sweating more.

You've got the body odor thing going on.

You're gaining weight or getting taller by the minute.

Your friends are talking about starting their periods.

You're giggling one minute and crying the next.

And in the middle of it all, you're looking in the mirror and saying, "Who are you and what have you done with me?"

This time in your life-between about eight and about thirteen years old-is when more changes are happening in your body than have ever happened since that first year (when you had to triple your weight, grow teeth, and figure out how to walk!). It can be a confusing time-a time when you want to shout to your body, "What's going on in there?"

Hopefully this will be a help to you: "What's going on in there" is normal. All these changes are because of something called puberty-and it happens to every girl and has since God first started making females. And probably every girl has had the same questions you might be having.

Girlz WANT TO KNOW

LILY: Everybody talks about "When you hit puberty ..." What is puberty, anyway?

Puberty is the time when your body starts producing two new hormones it hasn't produced before.

RENI: Swell. So what's a hormone?

A hormone is a chemical that's produced in a certain organ or gland and is then sent to another part of your body to go to work. The two new hormones in puberty are estrogen and progesterone.

ZOOEY: I have chemicals in my body!? Why? What are they doing in there?

They're slowly turning you into a woman.

Estrogen causes

the development of your breasts (time for a bra?)

the widening of your hips (think of it as curves ...)

the growth of all that extra hair in your arm pits and pubic area

the production of more oil in your skin and hair (enter pimples and greasies!)

the thickening of the hair on your legs (break out the razor!)

your new interest in boys (They haven't gotten any less absurd-you just don't mind as much!)

Progesterone, along with estrogen, causes and controls

your period

HOW IS THIS A God Thing?

You may find yourself wanting to ask God, "How come I have to go through all these pimples and all this embarrassing hair and all this crying that comes out of nowhere? Couldn't there have been a better way?"

In our minds, it might seem easier to wake up one day with a mature body, clear skin, and perfect coordination-but would that really be better? People would also expect you to act like a full-grown woman-and where would that come from?

God made growth-all kinds of growth-a gradual process that takes time. The slow appearance of hair, the day-by-day way your breasts grow, the trial-and-error you have to go through with your emotions-that's all part of God's plan for you to have the time to get used to the idea of becoming a woman.

Hopefully, by the time you look in the mirror when you're eighteen or twenty, you're going to pretty much like what you see. The trick is to make it till then, right?

That's what this book is about: helping you to understand "what's going on in there" and giving you some hints on how to grow with it, physically and spiritually.

As always, there might be some obstacles, so let's try to get those out of the way right up front.

BODY BLOCKER #1: I'm So Far Behind Everybody Else!

Maybe you're twelve and all your friends are getting their periods and wearing bras-and you still look, and feel, like a little girl. If you have a brother who asks you, "Hey, Sis, when's the breast fairy gonna come?" or you just have the fear that you're never going to catch up, just remember these things:

It isn't a contest! You'll get there at the right time for you.

You are your own unique self. God has already planned how and when you're going to grow into that.

(Continues...)