Gender stereotypes and puberty: Guiding gender-atypical kids

Gender stereotypes and puberty: Guiding gender-atypical kids
CNN
1/19/2021
© Courtesy Kate T. Parker
My 11-year-old daughter and I cracked open a book I'd bought for her on puberty and changing female bodies. On the very first page it informed her that, once her body developed, men would start looking at her differently.
We crinkled our noses in some combination of discomfort and skepticism. No matter how her body changed, we both knew she would continue to wear the same oversize hoodies, cargo pants and short hair dyed pink that she'd been sporting for years. However well intentioned and helpful to gender-typical girls the book's messages were, they didn't seem to apply to a kid like mine, who had flouted gender norms her entire life. These books and others like it operate on the assumption that, once puberty hit, girls like mine would feminize and conform.

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