How Puberty Changed My World
The transition from a young girl to a young adult is quite confusing and frustrating; I have had to come to the realisation that my body may be screaming woman but my mind still saw the world through the lens of a fourteen year old. No ,I am not fourteen but I am a young adult who has been reminiscing about her teenage years, I have had a hate -love relationship with my body; although recently I have been gravitating towards the latter. I think that the hate part had a lot to do with the fact that I felt that my body was never mine but instead a vessel that had to constantly live up to the standards of others so that it can be adorned with praise.
I relied heavily on the opinions of others for validation and it is no wonder that I hated my body because it was constantly under public scrutiny. When I eventually turned fourteen and developed curves ,I failed to understand why I suddenly was receiving so much male attention. I recall the day I wore an emerald green dress to a small communal gathering, it was a beautiful dress but the only memory I have of that day was the manner in which the males present at the event could not take away their gaze from my chest.
I stopped wearing that dress in public because I found that very uncomfortable, I did not understand what was happening to my body but the world around me seemed to know something that I clearly did not have any knowledge of, all this to say that puberty is confusing time for everyone. I rarely see media portraying the challenges of puberty (that exist outside menstruation) through a female gaze . Euphoria being the only show I can vividly recall (mention any other shows that you know) that explores impact of the physical changes that happen to young girls and how those changes are embraced by the people around them. We need more conversations and I honestly could go on a tangent but I won’t so I will leave it here folks…
