![]() ![]() Often, these girls were taller than most of their peers and showed other signs of accelerated physical maturation, such as pubic hair and underarm odor. But, by the two-thousands, new research had found that eighteen per cent of white girls, thirty-one per cent of Hispanic girls, and forty-three per cent of Black girls had entered thelarche by age eight, according to a study published in 2010. Only a small percentage of girls had started puberty by the age of eight, much less started menstruating. Menarche, or first period, was thought to happen around age thirteen. ![]() When Gray and Gualy were kids, pediatricians thought that the average age of onset of puberty in girls-defined in most medical literature as thelarche, when breast tissue begins to develop-was about eleven years old. “But I already felt so othered,” Gualy said, “and I didn’t want to add to that.” In fifth grade, Gualy’s best friend got her period, and she was upset to learn that Gualy had started hers more than a year earlier and hadn’t mentioned anything. ‘Is this yours?’ ‘Is this yours?’ Except she was only asking the more well-developed girls! I knew I wasn’t going to admit to it.” ![]() Later, when they were back at their desks for a spelling test, Gualy recalled, “the teacher went around from kid to kid with the tampon. fell out of her skirt when she and her classmates were sitting on the rug together. Her school uniform had no pockets, so whenever Gualy had her period, she had to hide tampons in her bra or in the waistband of her skirt. The sisters, whose parents were Colombian immigrants, attended a majority-white Catholic school in Nashville. tampons-the ones with no applicator they were small and easier to hide. Eventually, her older sister introduced her to o.b. Her mom showed her how to use a thick Kotex pad. Maritza Gualy got her first period when she was eight going on nine, at the end of the eighties. Yet I do think that there is a trauma in being sexualized.” I was lucky, because nothing traumatic occurred. “There were assumptions about me because I had boobs. She estimates that she was a C-cup by fifth grade. Gray was taller than her peers and wore layers of tops to conceal her developing breasts. It was very Gen X-you just dealt with things by yourself and got on with it.” “It wasn’t some big informational session. It felt so awkward and shameful.” She did eventually talk with her mom about it. But still, I didn’t tell anyone for months. “I knew what a period was-I didn’t think I was dying or anything. “There was nothing, no context for understanding,” Gray told me. Gray had a close relationship with her mom, but she was so young that they’d had no conversations about puberty her older sister had not yet gotten her period. She tied a sweatshirt around her waist to hide the bloodstain, and, later, threw the ruined pink jeans away when her mother asked where they’d gone, she threw a tantrum to deflect the question. She was wearing pink jeans, which she had saved up for a long time to buy. She was playing hide-and-seek with her older sister and a friend at their friend’s house in suburban Sacramento. Megan Gray was eight years old when she got her first period. ![]()
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