Although there are many similarities for girls and boys as they move through puberty, there is one obvious difference that happens as they experience growth spurts. During the early teen days of puberty, boys seem to still be so young and short, while many of the girls have already started their period and grown to their full height. It will help your daughter’s friendships with boys her age if she understands why there is this difference in height for a short time.

This is an anatomy figure from my book, I’m a Girl, How Are Boys Different? It teaches that both boys and girls have growth plates in their bones, the blue bars, that have made it possible for their bones to grow as they approached puberty. After puberty begins, they experience growth spurts when the grow plates grow very fast. Growth spurts happen about a year later for boys than for girls.

When adolescents reach the end of puberty, their growth plates begin to close. They arrive at their final height when they no longer have growth plates.