Lily Robbins, M.D.

by Nancy Rue

  Hopefully this truth will help you: “What’s going on in there?” is normal.

  All these changes are because of something called puberty—and it happens to every girl, and it has since God first started making females. And probably every girl has had the same questions you might have.

  GIRLZ Want to Know

  LILY: Everybody talks about “When you hit puberty . . .” What is puberty anyway?

  Puberty is the time when your body starts producing two new hormones it hasn’t produced before.

  RENI: Great. So what’s a hormone?

  A hormone is a chemical that’s produced in a certain organ or gland and is then sent to another part of your body to go to work. The two new hormones in puberty are estrogen and progesterone.

  ZOOEY: I have chemicals in my body?! Why? What are they doing in there?

  They’re slowly turning you into a woman.

  Estrogen causes

  • the development of your breasts (time for a bra?)

  • the widening of your hips (think of it as curves)

  • the growth of all that extra hair in your armpits and pubic area

  • the production of more oil in your skin and hair (enter pimples and the greasies!)

  • the thickening of the hair on your legs (break out the razor!)

  • your new interest in boys (They haven’t gotten any less silly. You just don’t mind as much!)

  Progesterone, along with estrogen, causes and controls

  • your period

  How Is This a God Thing?

  You may find yourself wanting to ask God, “How come I have to go through all these pimples and all this embarrassing hair and all this crying that comes out of nowhere? Couldn’t there have been a better way?”

  In our minds, it might seem easier to wake up one day with a mature body, clear skin, and perfect coordination—but would that really be better?

  People would then expect you to act like a full-grown woman—and where would that knowledge come from?

  God made growth—all kinds of growth—a gradual process that takes time. The slow appearance of hair, the day-by-day way your breasts grow, the trial and error you have to go through with your emotions—that’s all part of God’s plan for you to have the time to get used to the idea of becoming a woman. Hopefully, by the time you look in the mirror when you’re eighteen or twenty, you’re going to pretty much like what you see. The trick is to make it till then, right?

  That’s what this book is about: helping you understand “what’s going on in there” and giving you some hints about how to grow with it, physically and spiritually.

  As always, there may be some obstacles, so let’s try to get those out of the way right up front.

  BODY BLOCKER #1

  I’m So Far Behind Everybody Else!

  Maybe you’re twelve, and all your friends are getting their periods and wearing bras But you still look and feel like a little girl.

  If you have a brother who asks you, “Hey, Sis, when’s the breast fairy gonna come?” or you just have the fear that you’re never going to catch up, remember these things:

  • It isn’t a contest! You’ll get there at the right time for you.

  • You are your own unique self. God has already planned how and when you’re going to grow into that.

  • Meanwhile, it’s who you are inside that counts anyway. If you have God-confidence, you’re going to look, act, and feel good about yourself because that’s just how God made you. Concentrate on God and who He wants you to be.

  • Enjoy being free of bras and maxi pads while you can!

  BODY BLOCKER #2

  I’m So Far Ahead of Everybody Else!

  Maybe you’re twelve, and you are already in a C cup and you’ve been having periods since you were ten. As a result, you may feel like a freak.

  If you’re suffering from nicknames like “Betty Big Boobs” or if people are expecting you to act like you’re sixteen because you look like you are, perhaps thinking about these things will help you:

  • While you’re wishing you didn’t have such a well-developed chest, other girls are looking at their flat ones and wishing they could be so lucky! Yet wishing won’t make it so. You’re going to develop on the schedule and to the degree that God has programmed in your body.

  • Remember that as your age group matures, you’ll get less and less teasing because other girls will catch up, and boys won’t think it’s so funny to give you nicknames.

  • Meanwhile, if it makes you feel more comfortable, wear clothes that play down your maturing breasts and curvy hips. It’s not a matter of hiding who you are; it’s a way to cut down on the teasing until everybody else grows up!

  • Know that God loves you and has a good plan for you, and that plan includes your womanly body. Let that give you the God-confidence to walk tall. Do not, under any circumstances, be ashamed of the way you’re made. It’s a God thing.

  BODY BLOCKER #3

  I Just Don’t Want to Grow Up

  Maybe the whole idea of wearing a bra, shaving your legs, remembering to put on deodorant, and getting your period seems really scary to you.

  Know that you’re not alone. A lot of girls feel that way. Remembering these things may help you:

  • Every girl goes through it, so share your fears with your friends. It’ll bring you all closer together.

  • God makes sure you have at least one adult in your life who is willing to help you figure this stuff out. Look around. Is it your mom? an older sister or other relative? a minister, counselor, nurse, or doctor? Knowing you have someone to go to who has been there (and done that!) will make you feel less afraid.

  • It helps to think of puberty as sort of a path to better and better things.

  • It’s fun being a woman! We women get to have great relationships, experience incredible adventures, know never-ending love, and— someday—have babies. But to get there, you have to be here now.

  • God’s in it with you. He made the plan, and He doesn’t expect you to follow it on your own. Prayer helps—especially when nobody else seems to understand.

  Your puberty years can be fun and even a little exciting if you start by really getting acquainted with where you are now.

  Check out this excerpt

  from the next book in

  The Lily Series!

  Lily and the Creep

  One

  Hey, Robbins,” Leo Cooks hissed in Lily’s ear. Don’t answer, Lily Robbins told herself sternly. It’s a trick.

  She concentrated on not touching his sweaty hand, even though Ms. Gooch had said, “Join hands with your partner.”

  “Ms. Gooch is lookin’ at ya,” Leo whispered. His breath was hot, and it made Lily want to slap her hand over her ear, but she ignored him.

  “She’s givin’ you the eyebrow,” Leo persisted. That was not a good thing. The teacher’s eyebrow was usually the last warning sign before a name went on the board or something. Don’t fall into this absurd little creep’s trap, Lily thought.

  Leo wasn’t actually little. He was even bigger than his buddy Shad Shifferdecker, who was at this very moment managing to step all over the feet of his partner, Lily’s best friend, Reni Johnson. Even as Lily watched, he caught Reni on the side of her Nike shoe with his left foot. She jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.

  Don’t let him know he’s getting to you, Reni, Lily thought.

  Right. Just then Leo jabbed her in the side and hissed, “You better take my hand. Ms. Gooch’s got both eyebrows goin’!”

  Both eyebrows and the don’t-start-with-me tone. “Join hands, people,” she called out over the blaring Italian music.

  Taking a breath full of dread, Lily slid her hand into Leo’s. He squeezed it as if he were wringing out a dishrag, and suddenly Lily felt a jolt of pain go up her arm. Before she could stop herself, she’d let out a yell.

  The music came to an abrupt halt, and Ms. Gooch planted her hands on her hips. Both black eyebrows wer
e in full gear now.

  “All right! Who’s yelling?” she said.

  “It was Lily,” Marcie McCleary said.

  Lily tucked a curl of red hair behind her ear and otherwise tried to look innocent.

  “All right, you two,” Ms. Gooch said. “What’s going on?”

  I wasn’t doing anything! Lily wanted to protest. It was him!

  Still, Lily pressed her full lips together and kept quiet. She’d die before she’d be a tattletale like Marcie McCleary.

  “So what’s the story?” Ms. Gooch said.

  “I don’t know,” Leo said. “You told us to join hands, so I grabbed hers and she started yelling.”

  “Is there a problem, Lily?”

  “Lily is a problem,” Shad Shifferdecker said.

  Daniel Tibbetts snorted. Ms. Gooch waved both of them off with an impatient hand. She didn’t lose patience often, and the class got that uncomfortable kind of quiet, like when they were waiting to see if somebody was going to get sent to the office.

  “Lily,” she said again, “is there a problem?”

  Lily rubbed her fingers into her palm where moments ago Leo had set off some kind of buzzer-shock thing. But she shook her head no.

  “No,” she said. “Everything’s fine.”

  “Do you always yell when everything’s fine?” Ashley asked.

  Ashley’s best friend, Chelsea Green, let out her shriek of a laugh, and Marcie joined in because she always joined in when Ashley and Chelsea laughed, whether she knew what they were laughing at or not. Lily noticed with relief that her friends continued to glare at Leo and Shad.

  “We were about finished here anyway,” Ms. Gooch said. “Let’s go back to the room.”

  Leo left Lily’s side with a flailing of long arms and legs. Lily did her most poised walk up to the CD player where Ms. Gooch was busily pushing buttons.

  “Ms. Gooch?” Lily said. “I’m really sorry.”

  Ms. Gooch frowned down at the CD player. “I’m sure you were provoked. Do you want to tell me what was going on?”

  “It wasn’t that big of a deal. I just overreacted.”

  Lily could see Ms. Gooch was trying to smother a smile. “‘Overreacted’?” she said.

  “Yes,” Lily replied. It was a term her mother used all the time when she was talking about the way Lily responded to her two brothers.

  “So what were you ‘overreacting’ to?” Ms. Gooch said.

  “I don’t want to say. But could I change partners?”

  “Nope. Sorry,” Ms. Gooch said. “If I let you switch, I’ll have everybody and their dogs up here whining. I ought to just let you girls all dance with one another, but then I’d have to let the boys dance with one another, and we’d have even worse chaos.” She shook her head at Lily again. “Just tough it out, Lily,” she said. “If anybody can do it, you can.”

  At any other time, a compliment like that would have had Lily walking out of the multipurpose room with her spirits soaring. But right now she didn’t care how tough she was. She was sick of dealing with Leo and Daniel and, worst of all, Shad. She knew he was the one who had put Leo up to it.

  “Whoa! She really must have yelled at you,” Zooey said as Lily pushed her way through the double doors and out into the courtyard where the Girlz were gathered.

  They were all there, the whole Girlz Only Group: Reni and Zooey and Kresha and Suzy. It made Lily feel better already to have them around her, Reni’s black face set on revenge, Zooey’s round one flushed with concern, Suzy’s tiny eyebrows all puckered up in worry, and Kresha’s pale eyes peeking hopefully through her straggly bangs.

  “Men,” Zooey said in disgust.

  “They’re the worst,” Reni said. “I thought I had it bad having to dance with Shad, but you got it even worse. The whole time I was waiting for him to do something to me, and all the time it was Leo he had doing the dirty work. I shoulda known.”

  “What do we do?” Zooey said. “I have to dance with Daniel, which means I’m probably next, which means—” Zooey’s voice was starting to wind up into a whine.

  “Don’ vorry about it,” Kresha said. Her eyes were crinkling behind her bangs, and she flung a skinny arm around Lily’s neck. Kresha was the most touchy-feely of all of them. The Girlz had decided it must be because she was Croatian. They probably did a lot of hugging in Croatia or something.

  “Lee-lee vill think of something,” she said now. “She alvez does.”

  “Well, you better think of something fast,” Reni said, “before I have to smack somebody.”

  “Would you really hit one of them?” Zooey said, eyes round.

  “No, I would not,” Reni said. “But I’d sure like to.”

  “Okay, so I’ll think of something,” Lily said. “Tomorrow.”

  “Not today?” Kresha said.

  “No. Remember, today we have to clean the clubhouse,” Reni said. “Or my mama says she’s gonna close us down.”

  “It is getting kind of disgusting in there,” Lily said.

  They met every day after school in the playhouseturned-clubhouse in Reni’s backyard. Reni’s mother decreed no more meetings until it was cleaned.

  Besides, Lily thought, it’ll give me some time to think of something.

  It was always up to her to come up with solutions to their problems. She didn’t mind that. In fact, she kind of liked it. It was time she started looking for a new direction for her life anyway, she decided. It was the never-ending quest . . . trying to figure out who she was.

  The trouble was, this thing with the boys had been going on all year, and although she’d learned a lot since last fall, she still hadn’t figured out how to keep Shad, Leo, and Daniel from constantly messing things up for the Girlz. Looking better, feeling better—they’d made some progress with those things. But so far, they hadn’t cracked the boy problem.

  “Hey, Snobbins,” Shad Shifferdecker hissed as she passed him on the way to the street.

  She didn’t answer.

  “All right, but don’t blame me if you walk all the way home with that big piece of toilet paper stuck to your shoe.”

  Lily looked down in spite of herself. Of course nothing was stuck to her shoe.

  “Ha-ha! Made ya look!” Shad said.

  The Girlz were right. She had to think of something before the boys got control of them completely.