Girls Are Growing Up Faster Than Ever Before [VIDEO]

Have you ever stopped and looked at a girl in your life and thought, ‘how did she grow up so fast?’ Well it may not be your imagination! CNN reports that according to a new study, girls are entering puberty at earlier ages than they did in the past, which may be the contributing factor that leads to your surprise and dismay.

The study shows that more than 10 percent of 7-year-old girls had reached a point of breast maturity that pushed them into early puberty, so it is no wonder that we’re caught off guard. Our little girls really are growing up!

It doesn’t help matters that when girls look older than their years, they are treated as though they actually are older and are sometimes pushed into adult situations they are not emotionally prepared to deal with.

“Early maturation increases the rate of risk-taking behaviors and lowers academic performance,” says Dr. Frank Biro, M.D., the director of adolescent medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Susan Nickel, M.D., an assistant professor of pediatrics at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine says that the average age of a girl’s first menstruation has also declined. “Girls used to get their first…period at 14 or 15,” she says. Now the age is closer to 12.

In their book The New Puberty, Drs. Louise Greenspan and Julianna Deardorff mention that the root cause of this maturity acceleration in girls can’t be pinned on just one thing. Watch the interview I produced with the doctors (courtesy of Rodale) to find out what factors cause this change, and what you can do to help keep this early development from happening.

[CNN]