Puberty Discussion Thread

I talked to Stardust, and she said as long as this is kept in a medical context, then it should be fine. So, please, no sex jokes or anything of the like.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puberty

I'm mostly creating this because something got my curiosity, and that's voice changes.

According to that article, on average, girls begin puberty at 10-11 and finish it at 15-17 and boys begin at 11-12 and finish at 16-17. I know that's on average, but even with that, at ages 18, 19, 20, etc., we are still growing and such, so does growing not really count as puberty since we do that ever since we're born?

As for voices changes, during puberty it's more noticeable in males than females. Why is that? According to that Wikipedia article, it has something to do with the larynx. Generally, I noticed that until I was about 18 or 19, my voice often sounded higher and not my age. I believe a lot of it is that I have a bad habit of talking too fast -- my brain is ahead of my mouth -- because I noticed when I woke up in the mornings around 14, and even now when I wake up, my voice was deep and sounded my age, but as soon as I was really awake, it sounded higher. At one point I told my mom that, and she said it had something to do with not breathing when you talk too fast, but I can't really remember what she said.

Here are some gameplay videos where I talk:

March 29, 2007 - Age: 15

July 14, 2010 - Age: 18
Because this is a let's play, both my friend and I talk, so I picked a time for you guys to listen to my voice. Skip to 05:30.

April 2, 2011 - Age: 19
I'm the first one that talks.

August 19, 2012 - Age 20:
Turn the sound up. I start talking 20 seconds in.

Discuss.

 

Voices are unique from person to person. My friend, who is almost 18, still has voice cracks. Whereas mine never really cracked, it just got deeper and continues to do so, it was weird.

 

My brother got his voice change early, which is a shame because he was a boy soprano. Around twelve I think. Another friend of mine still has a really high voice though, and he's almost twenty. And all voices sound deeper when you first wake up. It's how your mom can tell you just woke up when she calls you at noon to ask how the dishes are going. I've personally always thought it was because phlegm coats the larynx when you sleep, but goes away as you wake up, to prevent drying out. You can't drink when you're sleeping.

 

Huh, my voice is usually the lowest the longer I've stayed up, so by 2 am I'm almost low enough to be a bass 8D
I think my voice was actually a little huskier when I was younger, and I've been trying to train myself to talk a little higher, at my "true pitch" which is slightly higher than my regular voice, but it would allow me to be able to have the best resonance with the least effort, so it keeps my voice healthier.

Physically I developed fairly quickly, I've barely grown since I was 14.

 

Up until age 13 I sounded like a girl, as soon as I hit 14 I don't know what happened but I sound like a grown man now and I'm 16. It's annoying sometimes because everyone thinks I'm older and yeah.

 

Well, I have yet to go through puberty and I'm fourteen—fifteen in about two months— and it sucks having not gone through it, to be perfectly honest. ;-;

However, I'm fine with how my voice is (high) but what really bugs me is my height. I just wish I could sprout up like a late blooming plant and be taller than I am now. Oh that would be so amazing.

But yeah, that's a little about me and puberty.

 

You should probably add something along the lines of "Pubery and Vocal Changes" to the title I thinks.

Anyway, my voice pretty much dropped when I was around 13 or 14, and I started developing facial hair around that time too. Sucked since it only grew so much as pencil thin so I looked Mexican even though I'm not at all. So now my voice is mid-deep for guys my age: not the deepest, but I won't be singing Soprano anytime soon.

 

Like Janson I think my voice was huskier when I was younger (though I think she was talking about singing? ololol), so much so that I had the nickname "Froggy" for some time. It's still rather deep for a girl but not as deep as it was.

As for physical changes, I hit puberty way early. I started growing & got my period when I was 10, which was way before a lot of the girls in my grade. Thankfully I have older sisters so I understood what was going on, but it was pretty awkward. I haven't really grown since I was 12 or 13. It's a shame, I was the tallest girl in the classes for a while, and then everyone else started growing and I was stuck at 5'2. :L

 

Misty's situation was pretty much the same as mine. Only I wasn't fortunate enough to have older sisters. :c I did have a very in depth book my parents brought me though. XDD
I was in a bra from about the age of 8, I'm 20 now and the damn things have never stopped growing. XD And I also went from being tall to being short. Honestly if you look at photos from a school trip I went on as a year 6(when I was about 10) I look like an adult in body but a child in face/hair/clothing/etc. And I was surrounded by tiny little 10 year old girls, so I looked like a giant. :c In fact I was taller than all the boys in my school as well by that point at about 5'4. My large size and bushy hair resulted in me being dubbed 'Hagrid' :c

On the topic of voice changes however, no men in my family's voices have ever "broken" as such. They just slowly got deeper over time, I wouldn't say any of them have particularly high voices though. Except for one cousin and his father who constantly sound like they're on helium (not trying to be mean, I just can't think of any other way to describe the exact pitch/tone of his voice). I have to admit, I'm quite curious about why their voices are so high, because one of my friends' brother-in-law has the same thing. But they're the only men I've ever come across who sound like that.

 

Just asking, can we talk about the more sexual part of puberty? You know, masturbation, etc?

 

Use your better judgement.

 

Puberty is different from the childsh grow because of the obvious "intent" of it, puberty is your body shiffithing for one that can't bare children to one that can (girls start getting periods, boys produce sperm). Its a classical change in most animals, animals usualy are divided at Young/adults when their sexual organs develp. All the concept of Teenager is "artificial" and made reacently in middle ages there were child and adults only.
I guess we are prolonging childhood until adulthood for way more time that previous generations (we are in a "child" game forum ) , the economy is partionaly to "blame"(if you think it as a bad thing), but also cause we are used to have a life standard that is difficult to provide whithout our parents, so we are leaving after and thus behaving as child for more time.

As in the voice departament it's sexual selection, the voice was a great aspect to empower yourself among another males, so females found powerfull voices desirable.. Women have voices that are closest to our (boys and girls) voices from childhood, because they don't need to develop in other way, the way they breath is slightly different than males because of their breasts, but mostly because they get pregnant .. when they do they have a huge load to carry and it's difficult to move their diafragm (That's why fat people have sometimes problems breathing), so their breathing is like expanding their torax more than males.
Also because males have a voice "more powerfull" than women, they can also do something women can't that is "Falsete" it's basicaly speaking in a higher tone, as women already speak in this way naturally they can't "falsete" (it means to mimic, or fake voice).

 

No, we're talking about puberty in more of a medical context here & it needs to remain PG-13.

 

'Kay. Just making sure before someone makes the forum rated X. Also, I feel like I'm never gonna get tall. @_@ I'm 4 feet and 6 inches.

 

you're 13. you've got so much time to grow. don't worry about it. you're time will come. then you'll be a man and realize how embarrassing you were when you were 13.

 

I know, but I hate it when I'm bullied about it. T_T

 

People are gonna bully. You gotta be the bigger man (metaphorically speaking). Your height will change, it's not set in stone right now. Their attitudes will stay crappy.

 

I don't remember anything. Except getting skinny to FAT! Not that fat though. I do remember getting an ugly mustache. I had really blonde hair and nice skin then this nasty dark shade above my lip. I shave it now.

 

You'll always get bullied, believe me. You just gotta feel good about being who you are.

I've always been one of the shortest people in my grade. As of now, I am 5'4". Most of my friends are 5'6" or higher. Doesn't mean I won't grow. One day, you'll grow taller than the people who bullied you, and then they'll feel bad about it.

 

So I figured I'd bump this to raise another question: How exactly does puberty work in terms of changes?

What exactly makes you grow, your voice change, your appearance change, etc.? Why is the difference more noticeable on friends between summer breaks or on people on TV shows between each season than on yourself? For example, I can tell the difference in my voice by watching videos from 2007, but just living from 2007 through now, I always sounded the same when hearing myself talk.

Moving on, why does it seem like the biggest changes are during the summer break between freshman and sophomore years in high school and how can so much change in about three months? For example, one of my friends, who was 14 at the time, during freshman year had a bit of a high-pitched voice and kid-like face; when sophomore year began, his voiced had really deepened over the summer and his physical appearance was more adult-like. However, the summers between sophomore and junior years and junior and senior years (he turned 18 during senior year), his voice deepened a bit and his appearance changed a bit, but they weren't as drastic as between freshman and sophomore years -- in fact, they were just noticeable enough to be noticed. Why is this?