Puberty anxiety

[Bannedontherun]

am I the only person on this planet to not understand being anxious about it. I do not recall being worried about my own body changes. I was quite excited about my transition from a girl to womanhood. My breast buds and pubic hair appearing was not upsetting to me.

Sure i was self conscious in the communal showers as our development varied and some of us were jealous about others advancements but overall it was normal and not at all scary.

Good for you. Doubt anyone is going to share their experiences with you though. Try Reddit.

Excited?

Yes I was excited at a brew stage in my life maybe that was my up bringing.and the era i was in

Grew not brew

'Breast buds'

A question for all. Did you hear/read this terminology when you were young? I have only heard it recently and usually from male people.

Yes. I think I may have read it in my mum's copy of Everywoman (late 1970s?) and I used it when explaining puberty to my dds.

The OP is plausible. Puberty is not universally horrifying, even for girls. So much is dependent upon the young person's expectations and experiences, both socially and physically. And some stages may be better - or worse - than others.

Yes, I heard this phrase in school when we had lessons on puberty. This would have been around the early 2000s

Yes I wasn't anxious about it, couldn't bloody wait as I was a late developer. Was much more 'are you there god it's me margaret' about it 😅. Plus, I'm pretty flat chested still. I could see if you were on the early side or your body changed a lot that it could make you uncomfortable though.

I imagine this could be more common for those who develop a bit later - I was one of the last to need a bra so was really excited to get one finally. Periods not so much.

I had terrible anxiety about puberty. My parents never told me anything about it and I learnt everything I knew from Jackie magazine in the 80s.
And the actual experience of gong through it was awful for me, I was way earlier than others at my school which made me feel self conscious and quite isolated. When my periods started, they started the way they were going to go on which was exceptionally heavy and far more frequent than once a month. I can FULLY understand why young girls might be anxious.

Thanks for the replies. It had obviously just passed me by somehow.

Jackie magazine, considered edgy at the time, me and my BF used to read her older sisters, who was mad about David Cassidy. I asked the question because my daughter who is in her 30’s, was not anxious either.

Wondering what is causing this issue.

As an early developer it was the teasing that made me anxious rather than puberty itself.

I have a close friend who remembers it with horror as she didn't understand what was happening. So I wonder if there is a correlation with not knowing about it/understanding and how anxious a child gets.

I've also had group therapy and there were people who didn't want to be able to get pregnant from their abuser or didn't want to attract the attention of abusers. After I got boobs I certainly came in for casual sexual assults at school and on the bus etc so again I wonder if the anxiety over puberty is actually about puberty or it's worry for how people will treat you.

Good point @LikeWeUsedToBe, my mate was an early developer, and very good looking to boot, and attracted the same unwelcome attention. I was one of those later developers, so maybe under the boys radar for longer.

I think the message here is we're all individuals. Personally, I was so horrified at the idea of becoming a woman that I wondered if I could kill myself before my periods happened. 'Suicide ideation' I think it's called.
These days I'd have been down the Tavistock queuing overnight for puberty blockers, surgery - the works.
Thank heavens I didn't get my hands on a gun, I didn't live anywhere near the Tavi, and when my periods arrived I just went 'Oh right...OK then' and got on with growing up as a lesbian.

My schoolfriends would have been a mixture of 'have you got yours yet? no? what's wrong with you?' and 'this is such a nuisance' and celebrating buying their first bra, because it was an important milestone for them.

So all sorts of experiences..
I can't see how anyone could put any kind of positive spin on periods though...😨

We did have sex education in comp, in Science, just one session, about the mechanics, with cringy diagrams. The girls were then sent next door and told by a midwife that we would all be having periods and that we should ask our mum for more details about it. Her closing advice was don't have sex until you are married.

Not very helpful at all really.

I went through puberty in the 1960s and honestly don't recall any anxiety about it among my friends, except possibly for one (who is still a friend so I may ask her about it next time I see her) who developed breasts early and very noticeably so was on the receiving end of unwanted attention from the boys. My DD went through puberty in the 1990s and I don't recall her expressing anxiety about it either, though she was very modest and I remember her being embarrassed when we went to get her first bra fitted.