LADIES: How did early maturation or late maturation effect you?

Question

I am doing a paper on the social effect that when you mature has had on women. Early is before 10. late is after 14 or 15.

(Maturation includes when you got your period, when you developed secondary s*x characteristics.)

Studies say that early-maturing girls often lack self-confidence, are less popular, are more likely to be depressed and have behavior problems, and are more likely to smoke and drink. Late maturing girls are though to be better adjusted.

However, I'm not so sure this is accurate so I want to know how it affected the way you related to your peers, related to yourself and your family, and if it effected your behavior in general. If you don't fall in either of these categories but know where I can find some good research on the subject, please post as well. Anything you think will be useful, I would appreciate! Thanks

Answer 1

I had large b*****s at the age of 10, it was horrible I got teased and used to walk around all hunched over with my arms crossed against my chest to cover them.  One of my primary school friends father also tried to mollest me as he said I was a woman.  He drugged me  and of coarse blamed me when I complained, i had no idea/awareness about s*x.  The police bungled the investigation and he got away with it.

Answer 2

I have nieces that have matured early and they take a lot of criticism not only at school, but behind their backs at home also. Their immediate family is awful. Also, when I look back on the girls at school who did mature at an earlier age they did get teased and gawked at a lot.

Answer 3

Well I was 12, so that's average, isn't it. So I can't really help can I?

I think the opposite is true though, because early maturing girls have more time to become comfortable with themselves and their bodies, plus adult hormones can apparently have a positive effect on the confidence. Plus in my experience people (especially girls) are more likely to be bullied for maturing late than for maturing early.

Answer 4

I matured early (Got my period when I was 9 or 10!) and I hated it because boys would often comment on my b*****s and stuff, which made me embarressed. I'm okay with it now though.

Answer 5

I guess I was an early bloomer. I started getting my period at the age of 12 and was wearing cup sizes in bras by 11. As a result, people tended to think I was older than I actually was and expected me to act like an older person. When I acted my age, they often wondered if I was retarded or "slow".

Answer 6

I got my period in 7th grade so I think I was about 12. Then it seems like the next day I woke up with huge b***s. Basically what happened to me was all my girl friends turned into a bunch of jerks and I ended up with a bunch of guy friends who were constantly looking down my shirt and trying to make out with me. I had alot of confidence because I had alot of friends who never allowed anyone to mess with me. But I never did get along with girls after that. To this day I have very few girl friends. I actually married the first guy who befriended me in 7th grade.

Answer 7

I was a bit of a late bloomer. I was 14 before I needed any kind of bra. All of my classmates in grade 7 were ahead of me developmentally. Many of them had already started their period, and all of them - literally - had b*****s where I only had buds. It made me a bit self-conscious. I felt girlish and plain and not very pretty. But looking back, I realize it was better than what my poor friend had to go through. She was a c or d cup at the age of 13, and the boys used to watch her like hawks in gym class. Nobody ever teased me for being flat, but the other girls had to deal with some crude remarks about their b*****s.

It seems like girls are going through puberty so much sooner than they used to. It's odd. Know what I have noticed? It seems like all the girls I knew who were homeschooled hit puberty later and developed more slowly than their public school counterparts. Even me....when I was in grade 7 in public school, I was fresh from two years of homeschooling (and then I went back to it in grade 8). It is very odd. I wonder why that is. There must be come kind of link, because it's way too common to be just a coincidence.

Answer 8

I was a late bloomer, I didn't get my period until I was 15, I was flat chested until I got out of the scrawny stage at about 16.  Boys teased me because I didn't need a bra, they would say, "The back looks good but the front needs work," (Clever) it was tough.  When you are young you tend to take the littlest things so seriously.  Now I am happy that I have small b*****s and am comfortable in my own skin.  But yes, it was tough back then.