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Physical Changes for Girls
Now we're going to talk about some of the changes that happen to females during puberty. Well, there are a lot of physical and emotional changes that happen to puberty, these are the ones that happen to females only. The first thing that happens is hormones. Hormones start moving in people's bodies, Hormones are like an invisible chemical that sends signals to your bodies to start changing. The main hormone responsible for changes in females is estrogen. Now, I'll give you a hint, boys have estrogen, too, girls just have more estrogen. And estrogen is responsible for a lot of the changes that happen in female bodies. Some of those changes are: people's hips start to get wider. Why do you think hips get wider in girls? Well, you could imagine if later in life, a woman wants to have a pregnancy there needs to be room between her hips for the baby to grow, so during puberty the body prepares for that by letting the hips grow wider. Another change that happens during puberty for girls is breast tissue starts to grow. So, often girls start to notice that their breasts grow and also their nipples and the areolas a round the nipples start to grow first. Its also pretty common that one breast grows faster than the other. It's a good thing that once a person is done growing often one breast is larger than the other. And because breasts grow, some people start to wear a bra. In puberty, most people use what's called a training bra. That's a bra that can grow with a person's body. Some people wear bras, other people don't wear bras. Bras can be because they support the breast and help keep them close to the body when a person does sports, or maybe bras are worn because people like them or think they are pretty. Whether or not a person wears a bra or not, that's a personal choice and decision. Another thing that starts to happen during puberty us hair starts to grow around the vulva. Whats a vulva you say? The vulva is the name for the outside part of the female. And the hair that grows on that part is called, you got it, pubic hair. Another thing that happens during puberty is the vagina, the clitoris and the vulva all start growing. These are all parts of the female body in the reproductive area and they all grow slightly. A big thing that happens during puberty is the ovaries start releasing eggs. Girls are born with all of their eggs in their body. In fact when they're born, they have millions of eggs in their body. By the time they hit puberty, they have about 355,000 eggs in their ovaries. And when their ovaries start releasing all those eggs, that's when they say menstruation begins. Its really just a fancy word for period. What that means is for about 3 to 7 days a girl will have some blood that comes out of the vagina. That's a sign that the body has released an egg. Because people have to deal with periods and with fluids leaving their bodies, they have to learn to take care of that fluid by using pads and tampons. Those are two ways that people catch the fluid and prevent the blood from coming out of the body and staining their clothes or bed sheet. Another thing that happens during puberty is the vagina starts to make moisture. In fact, the vagina is always making moisture. Just like our mouth makes moisture to keep our mouth healthy, the vagina also has moisture and that's keeping the vagina healthy. So that means that girls might notice some moisture or discharge in their underwear. It could be white or slightly yellow. That's just a normal sign that the vagina is taking care of itself. Another thing that happens during puberty is erections. Girls get more erections during puberty in the clitoris. That might mean there might be a warm and tingly feeling they might notice in their private parts and all an erection is is a lot of blood rushing into the private parts. So, these are some of the changes that happen just for girls during puberty.
