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The Mystery of Puberty, Part 1


How well I remember the summer when all the adolescent girls in my class at school simultaneously hit puberty!

The previous June when the school year ended, all the girls were just like me. We were interested in  everything -- school, books, art, sports, growing up and achieving our best. In September when we came back after the summer break, all the other girls were suddenly concerned with one thing only -- boys. Previously intelligent girls started pretending to be dumb and uninterested in books or school. "Everyone knows that boys don't like girls who are smarter than they are." The girls all started dieting and obsessing about their looks.

For the life of me, I could not understand this sudden and inexplicable change. It was like aliens had come down from the sky and hijacked all their brains. Why were they acting so weird? I was still the same as always -- why weren't they?

Tomorrow . . . mystery solved! (eventually)