Original subtitles

The whole...

Some pretty amazing things happen in between the time you're a child and the

time you're an adult Big changes in the way you look and the way you feel

perhaps the biggest changes you'll ever go through in your entire life There's

nothing to worry about because we all go through them on the way to growing up

But when they

happen to you You want to know why.

The trouble is, your friends don't know any more than you do, so they won't know

the answers.

And because they're such personal questions, the chances are that you're

to find it very difficult even to ask your parents.

So we're going to try to explain some of the changes you'll go through.

Adults call this time in your life the years of puberty.

But we remember them as the years of the world's most embarrassing

questions.

Now the first thing to understand is why you change from a child into an adult

and it's very simple It's to reproduce to have children of your own

The instinct to reproduce is the same for every living thing.

From fleas and frogs, to elephants, to kangaroos, and to

people.

But you're not made to have babies when you're only five or six years old

because you couldn't take care of them.

So the process of growing up is spread over several years.

The years you're going through now.

The years of puberty.

They may start when you're 8 or 9.

Or not until you're 12 or 13.

It varies because we all grow at different speeds.

So don't worry if your changes don't happen at quite the same time as the

you're going to see now.

And don't expect them to happen all at once.

Ladies first, and here we go.

The first stage of puberty.

Your breasts and nipples start to develop.

So does pubic hair.

And your hips become a little wider.

During stage two, you may not be growing upwards quite so fast, but your body is

still busy.

Breasts are bigger, and there's more pubic hair.

By now, your emotional life is as busy as your body.

You're interested in boys, and they're probably interested in you.

Physically, you're now a young woman, and no longer a little girl.

While your emotions will develop and change, your body's just about grown up.

For some reason, girls usually develop earlier than boys.

But as you'll see,

Boys get there in the end.

Your body shape begins to change from a boy's into a man's.

Shoulders, chest, and femur are all growing.

Your penis may look like this, or like this, and your voice may get a little

deeper.

The second stage, and it's a busy time all over.

Your first pubic hair.

An even deeper

voice.

And some strange and exciting dreams could all happen during these two or

years.

Now

for

the bad news.

This is often the age of the zit.

Because the texture of your skin is changing as your body grows.

And you might get quite a few king -sized pimples.

By now, you're probably having to shave.

If not every day, then once or twice a week.

Physically, you're a fully developed man.

Girls, or maybe one special girl, have become a lot more interesting than

football.

Now all these changes don't happen by magic.

They're caused by some things called hormones, which you make inside your

during puberty.

Hormones, like people, come in two sexes, and they have pretty fancy names.

The female sex hormone is called estrogen.

The male hormone is testosterone.

These two aren't the only hormones in your body, but they're the ones to

remember. Because they're the ones that cause most of your physical changes.

And they're going to be very, very busy over the next few years.

Starting from now.

One day, if you're a girl, you look in the mirror and there they'll be.

Instead of a flat chest, two bumps.

These are the beginnings of your breasts. And they're not there just to

pretty. They're useful, too.

If, when you're a woman, you decide to have a baby, your breasts will store the

milk.

This is your baby's first...

food.

Although a lot of babies nowadays are fed from a bottle, nature provides

mother's milk as well, and it's kept in breath.

Breasts, like women, come in all different shapes and sizes.

This may seem funny to you now, but you'll find as you get older that

are very popular.

Boys and men like them a lot, and so should you.

are lovely and youthful.

And not just for babies.

About the same time as girls

are coping with a brand new pair of breath, boys are coping with something

Erections. Erections happen when your penis becomes stiff.

Often because you've been thinking about girls.

And those thoughts go straight from your head.

to the area around your penis, where all kinds of wonderful things are

happening.

Under your penis is a small bag of skin containing your two testicles, which are

busy producing sperm, and the male sex hormone testosterone.

Sperm, when they meet the eggs produced by a woman, make baby.

If two sperm meet two

eggs, the result is twin.

Three sperm and three eggs, triplet, and so on.

The sperm's natural instinct is to escape through the hole at the end of

penis and make their way up a woman's vagina.

An erection is their way of telling you they want to get out.

If they can't do that, they'll get bored and calm down, and your erection will

go away.

Until the next time.

Now, you girls won't be bothered by sperm.

Inside every girl is a womb, which is where a baby lives while it's

Even when there's no baby there, your body gets ready just in case.

Every month, you make a new lining for your womb, a kind of baby cushion,

and some tiny eggs.

These eggs... with the male sperm are what makes baby.

But if you're not having a baby, which is most of the time, the lining and the

egg leave your body in the form of blood through your vagina.

One day, maybe when you're in bed,

You'll look down and see blood between your legs.

It's your first period, and it can come as quite a shock at any time from 10 or

11 onward.

It may give you a stomachache, and it often makes you feel grouchy.

But it's one of the facts of a woman's life.

This usually happens once every period of 28 days, but it varies from woman to

woman.

And to make it easier to cope with, many women use a pad

or something called a tampon to absorb the blood.

The tampon is worn inside the vagina.

And it's comfortable enough...

to let you do just about everything you would normally do.

Periods aren't much fun, but if you didn't have them, you couldn't have

children.

And now for a change you can hear.

There comes a moment in every young man's life when his voice starts playing

tricks on him.

It goes from a boy's voice to a man's voice, from squeaky to deep.

Because your vocal cords and your larynx are getting bigger, making your voice

break.

Your new voice will take a little time to settle

in.

But once it does, it won't change again.

And your squeaking days will be over.

Just about the time you're

getting interested in the opposite sex, nature can play a dirty trick on both of

you.

Zits, spots, pimples.

You don't need them, but you'll probably get them.

Funnily enough, zits are caused by something that's good for your skin.

Oil.

Its full name is sebaceous oil.

And it keeps your skin from drying up.

The trouble is that during puberty, you produce more oil than you need.

And it has to come out through the tiny holes in your skin.

If it gets stuck there, all it takes is a speck of dirt to turn it into a

prize pimple.

To keep pimples away, don't eat too many sweet things.

And don't skimp on washing.

The cleaner your skin is, the sooner these zits will go.

And one day, they won't come back.

By the time you're 13 or 14, you're probably getting more and more

the opposite sex.

And the pressure in your body, the urge to reproduce, is getting stronger and

stronger.

Girls and boys have the same problem, and there's a normal, natural solution.

It's called playing with yourself or masturbating.

A girl will rub or stroke her clitoris. This is a small, very sensitive area

above the entrance to the vagina between her legs.

And a boy will do the same with his penis until they have something called

orgasm.

which releases all that sexual pressure that has been building up inside.

Perhaps because it feels so good, you may worry that somehow you're doing

something which isn't quite right.

But masturbation is a perfectly normal and natural part of growing up.

In fact, something very

similar can happen to you, particularly if you're a boy, even at night while

you're fast asleep.

And if we take a look under the bedclothes, we can see why.

It's those sperm again.

Your body has been making so many of them that they just have to get out.

And for all of them to get out, you have to have an erection.

So you dream a special kind of dream.

Maybe about a girl you like.

Before long, your dream causes an erection.

This is what the sperm have been waiting for.

They shoot out in an orgasm.

And you wake up with sticky pajamas.

It's called having a wet dream.

Surprising, but nice.

And just as normal as sleeping.

Now you know about some of the biggest changes that will happen to you and all

your friends during puberty.

But you're bound to have plenty more questions because we all grow up at

different times and in different ways.

You may wonder why you have less pubic hair than the kid next door.

Or why you have two different colors of hair.

Or why your penis isn't quite the same as his penis.

Or why your breasts are one shape and size and theirs are another.

You know why?

It's because from the time you're a baby and right through your life, nobody

else is quite like you.

So take care of yourself and don't worry.

Puberty is one of the most exciting facts of life.