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Your best friend just told you that she doesn't love your miniskirt. You feel so upset. Your
mom is driving you crazy. Your teacher told you to rewrite your English assignment, and
now you start bawling. You're angry one minute. You're happy the next. You have tons of mood
swings. Your body's going through all sorts of wacky changes. What is going on?
Let me let you in on a little secret: it's called your hormones. That's what's responsible
for all of these changes during puberty.
Let's break down how hormones work. There's the pituitary gland. It's a bean shaped gland
that sits at the base of your brain. When you are ready to go through puberty it sends
out signals, or hormones, telling your body to change.
As a girl these hormones travel through your bloodstream and they tell your ovaries to
produce estrogen which is the hormone responsible for all of these crazy changes that you're
experiencing - changes in your body, like your ***. You get your period. You get
underarm hair. You have *** hair. The hair on your legs and arms starts to darken and
get thicker. All of these changes are due to the hormones that are flowing through your
body due to puberty.
But it's not just your body that they're working on. It's your mind, too. That's why you have
mood swings. You might feel irritable one minute and feel happy the next.
All of this is normal, and there are ways to deal with it. The first thing is to remember
that you are not alone. Everybody goes through this. Hormones work on everybody's body during
puberty in different ways. But trust me, everyone experiences these symptoms and they are normal.
You should learn to relax. It's so important to find something that works for you whether
it's Pilates, yoga, talking to a friend, exercising. Whatever it does to relax you will help you
deal with these emotional changes and these body changes that you may be experiencing.
Also,don't forget to talk to somebody as I mentioned. If you're not comfortable talking
to your parents that's fine. Find somebody, a coach, a teammate, a friend, an older sister,
an older brother. They'll let you know that everyone goes through this, it's normal, and
you'll make it through, too.