Womanchild

Puberty, for me, was an interesting and embarrassing experience, although it seems normal in most ways.

I started to get boobs around fourth grade, and although I wasn’t the first, I was pretty close to it. I remember not wanting to wear a bra because I thought they were uncomfortable, and I remember changing for gym, and not looking around or looking at myself. I changed in the corner, because I didn’t want to see how far ahead I was of the other girls. And to top it all off, I wasn’t exactly big, but I wasn’t the smallest in my grade, so I had issues dealing with that as well as boobs and hairy parts and all that.

I started my period in sixth grade, much to my embarrassment. My sister was the first person I told, and all I remember that week was embarrassment at the fact that I was bleeding. I mean, it may be a right of passage and a sign of physical maturity, but it’s a bodily function. To me, discussing my period is like discussing bowel movements. Sure, it’s a sign of the freedom I have with my body (even though I am also a slave), but that doesn’t mean I necessarily want it celebrated. Let me celebrate my womanhood in my own way. And I do. I am very comfortable with my body. I am proud to be a woman, and I’m not afraid to be one. I don’t let my sex rule the world.

Puberty sucks. The boobs, the teasing, the “spots,” the shaving. But through it all… It’s just another experience, another notch on our belts. Puberty is the process that physically makes us women. But it is not what makes us mentally and emotionally womyn.