Girlology: A Girl's Guide to Stuff that Matters

All right, let’s start with the “for your good” crowd. These are usually people like your parents, your family, doctors, nurses, religious leaders and teachers. Close friends can also be great, especially when it comes to sharing your thoughts and feelings, but they may not know all the facts about sexual things.

As for the “for their good” crowd, these people want to sell you stuff, persuade you to do what makes them feel good or show off. They are usually advertisers on TV and in magazines, certain movies and TV shows, and some friends or boyfriends.

The trick is to listen to people who can help you decide what is important to you and good for you—people who can help you decide on values you can stick to for the rest of your life.

How you think and feel about yourself, your body, sex and sexual things are important stuff. You need to ask questions and get real answers. You need to share your feelings and know they will be kept private. And you can only do this with someone you trust. Girlology will help you decide who is worthy of your trust.

But It’s Kind of Embarrassing

Lots of things you read in this book will be good things to bring up with your mom, your dad or another trusted adult. Think those adults are clueless? Hopeless? Completely and utterly out of touch? Well, you’ll be surprised to know that they were not dropped on this planet as adults. They actually had to go through the same stages that you are going through to become sexually mature. And while that may have happened in the “dark ages,” most of them really do remember a lot about it.

Think your parents will be embarrassed by sex talk? They might be. You might be. But we promise that the more you talk about it, the easier it will get—for you and for them.

Puberty We don’t really talk about puberty a lot in this book because most of you are already in the midst of it or well beyond the beginning stages. Just to give you a definition, puberty is the time during a girl’s or guy’s life when they are becoming more adult- like in their body, including their appearance and their thinking. The word puberty comes from two different Latin words. One is pubertas, which means “adult-like,” and the other is pubescere, which means “to grow hairy or mossy.” Nice. Puberty starts for girls between the ages of eight and twelve. The usual start is with breast development, although plenty of girls start with pubic hair instead. For guys, puberty starts a little later, around the ages of ten to fourteen. Their start isn’t as obvious because the first sign for them is that their testicles grow. Later signs for them are penis growth, facial hair and voice changes. Puberty lasts longer for guys than for girls. In fact, most girls are finished growing within two years after starting their periods. Guys sometimes don’t finish growing until they are older teens, around seventeen to nineteen.

It’s a Life Lesson

Sex, breasts, periods, guys, body parts, Girl Power, choices, values, talking to adults—whew! That’s a lot to learn, but we’re going to make it interesting and fun. It might occasionally be weird, too. But hey, sometimes that can be the most interesting part!

Life lessons are supposed to be learned slowly. And that’s what Girlology is—a life lesson. Remember, we’re going to grow us some Girl Power . . . and growing takes time. So there’s no need to race through this book. Read a chapter; think about it. Read some more. Think some more. Read. Think. Read. Think. Get the hang of it?

You might even want to write down your thoughts. There is room for that. There are some quizzes and journaling ideas. Have at it! It’s not a school assignment, so have some fun. No pressure or grades!

The whole idea of a sex book may be freaking you out a little bit right now. Sexual maturing and growing up is confusing to everyone when it happens. But you know what? It’s just life. You can’t hide from it or ignore it—in fact, your changing body and brain will make you see it and think about it, sometimes a lot.

Girlology wants to take the mystery out of it all. Don’t think of this as just a “sex book.” Keep thinking of it as a life lesson. And when you finish this lesson, you’ll have a better idea about who you are and who you want to become. You’ll also have a plan for your sexual and relationship choices—a real plan using true information and based on your own values. A plan you can live with for years to come.

We know that girls are smart enough to make sense of all this confusing sex stuff. So turn on your brains, bring along your feelings and be prepared to discover great things about being a girl. Girl Power, here we come!

2

Friends Who Rock and Friends Who [Need to] Roll!

For most girls, friends rock!

(Or do they?)