The Binti Podcast
What is Puberty? (Part 1)
- Welcome to the Binti Podcast, where we discuss the journey of being a daughter. I'm G. - And I'm Noni. And we look forward to going on this journey with you. Today's episode is about P-Ray itself. - So before we get started with this episode, we want to make a disclaimer. Are we doctors? - No, we are not. - We're a mama and a Binti on a journey, trying to learn some things about ourselves and our bodies. So if you hear any discrepancies or have any questions, go talk to your pediatrician, go ask a mama, or go to your own research. So Noni, what's puberty? - It's a growing process of children, but today we're going to be focusing on all the Bintis out there. - Okay, so it's a growth process. And specifically for us, there are many ways to describe puberty, but we're thinking about this period of time that's almost a decade when a Binti develops physically, emotionally, and energetically. If we think about it scientifically, it often begins anywhere between eight and 13. But we know that everyone is on their own journey, right, Noni? - Yes. - Okay. So when we think about the physical, emotional, and energetic aspects of puberty, how would you define puberty physically? - Pretty uncomfortable. At times, it's like really, really uncomfortable. Like sometimes I'll wake up and my body just hurts. I'll be sore enough. 'Cause when you're growing, and especially when you're growing quickly, your body will hurt. - That's a great point. And do you know that during puberty, it's the second fastest time of growth in your life. The first fastest is when you're going from birth through infancy, right? - Yeah, that's the thing. - But this is the second fastest time that you're growing in life. So it makes sense that it might be a little uncomfortable. Anything else? How you would define puberty? - I feel like even though it can be uncomfortable at times, whenever my mom tells me, oh, you're just growing, I just feel like it's like seven through. I don't know why, but it just feels so good. 'Cause I've always thought like, oh, how cool is it to grow up and be older? And now I'm growing. - So it just feels like super cool, I guess. - So it can be uncomfortable and thrilling at the same time. Okay, that's amazing. And a lot of times we think about puberty for us mamas, we think about some maybe technical things, right? We think about things physical like changes in our body structure, the growth of buds or breasts, height growth, so you seem like you're growing overnight. And other things like smell and we have whole podcast on all of these topics. When you think about puberty and you think about emotional growth, what do you think about? - Emotional growth. Pretty, pretty rough. And at times it sort of feel like, I sort of feel like that it'll last forever. And sometimes it's sort of like, we have a lot, lots and lots and lots of schoolwork. Not just like a few pages of homework. I mean like 30, 40, 50 pages of schoolwork. And you're like sitting down doing it. And then you just feel like I want this to end. And I sure feel like that that's how puberty can be at times. It's just like, please let it be over. I wouldn't go back to my younger self 'cause I didn't have changes. And I wasn't growing when I was like five or four. - So I love this image of having so much work, right? Because the reality is that puberty is a huge learning curve. It's a huge learning curve internally for your body. Your body is trying to figure things out. It's a learning curve for you intellectually and emotionally. And it's a learning curve for everyone in your community, right? 'Cause every day we're trying to readjust and learn. So I love that imagery. And I love the way you're communicating that there's so much of it. And that makes sense. Do you know why? - Why? - When you think about puberty, do you think about any of the body systems? So you know how you learn about the muscular system. Do you think about a system when you think about puberty? - No. - Interesting. - I didn't either. - Maybe we like the puberty system. - Okay. - I think that that's a thing. But sometimes I just feel like that maybe that's... - Well, you might think about the reproductive system, right? But puberty actually comes out of the endocrine system. And the endocrine system is one of the most sophisticated systems in our body. It includes so many different parts of our body. Over half of the parts of the endocrine system connect the brain to the ovaries, right? So it connects the brain to our womb. And to me, that's fascinating. 'Cause oftentimes when we think about puberty, we're only thinking about the reproductive system. Do you think about the brain when you think about puberty? - No. And honestly, I didn't think that the brain and the reproductive system worked together. So we're gonna go down a slightly scientific road for about 60 seconds, okay? Your brain has a section in it called the hypothalamus. Can you say that? - Hypothalamus. - The hypothalamus is your regulation system. It's like control center. And the hypothalamus controls everything from like your hunger to your heart to your temperature to your mood. And all of these things are a part of puberty, right? Your mood, your temperature, your sleep, your hunger. All of these things come up. - Is your heart also our favorite? - It is like metaphorically and biologically. But anyway, the hypothalamus, which is this control center, regulates pretty much everything. And it produces something else. Now I am not a scientist, but here we go. It produces Gana Dotropin. - Gana Dotropin. - It produces Gana Dotropin releasing hormones, which are also short for G-N-R-H hormones. Mamas, binties, go study this on your own time. We're just giving you the outline here. Okay, so the hypothalamus produces Gana Dotropin releasing hormones. And hormones, we know hormones are what? Here you know, knee. - Messengers from the brain to your body. - Okay, so they're messengers that move throughout your body, okay? So those hormones then go to another part of your brain called the pituitary gland. And in that gland-- - I thought that you're gonna say, not CAR-E gland, sorry. - And in the pituitary gland, those hormones are telling it to make these Gana Dotropins. They make two kinds of hormones, the follicle-stimulating hormones, and they make the luteinizing hormone. And those two hormones go to the ovaries. So those two messengers go all the way out from the brain, they make their way down and they go to the ovaries. And when they get to the ovaries, they create a whole 'nother hormone, a whole 'nother messenger called-- - Ooh, it's called the phylocic raptor hormone. Nope, it's called estrogen. (laughing) It's called estrogen. And so mamas might be familiar with that hormone. What's important to know about all of this is that the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the ovaries are partners. They make an axis. That axis is called HPO. It's the HPO axis. And from now on, we're gonna just talk about the HPO axis. But basically, that means that there is a chemistry party happening in your body. We know that you love chemistry, Noni. So I know that was super technical, but I think it's important for the mamas and the binties to know that puberty is a relationship between our brain and our reproductive system. And that's just the short of it. The long of it is that there's all kinds of other things going on in our body, and we'll talk about that in the coming weeks. But then there's this other part of puberty that we don't actually read about in books often. And that part is the energetic aspect. And so for us, puberty is also a time for self-reflection and renewal regarding yourself and your relationship to your people. Who are your people? - Right, family. - Your family? - Your family, who else? - My community. - Your community. - My friends. - Right? And so energetically, this is also a time where we're not just focused on the chemistry party that's going on inside. We're not necessarily always focused on the physical things. We're also focused on this self-reflexivity. That's where we get that full balance. So if we define puberty again, how would you define puberty? - As a bumpy, but very organized road. - Absolutely. So mamas and binties, we wanna encourage you all to make your own definition of puberty. What are the emotional, physical and energetic ways you want to define puberty? Well, thank you, Noni, for having this conversation about puberty. There are many ways we can have this conversation and technically we're gonna be having it over the course of many episodes. - Many years. - And many years. But thank you for starting us off. - Thank you for listening. - I'm G. - And I'm Noni. And this is the Binti Podcast.