Puberty Essay

What is happening to me...

Are you one of those teenagers who cares about how you look, how other people see you, what other people think about and how other people feel about you? Yes you are, everyone is. You're probably denying it right now, but you are like everyone else. It is part of the teenage brain to feel this need. In my house I have an 18 year old brother. He is like this all the time, he eats a lot food, he practically has two dinners, he watches TV and plays on his computer all night, and sleeps all day. I always wonder why he is like this and why when my parents talk to him he doesn’t change. My parents are always telling me that I’m going to become a teenager and be annoying, lazy and hungry as well. I’ve always denied it, but how would I know, everyone goes through it so why wouldn’t I. 

We’ve learnt all about it and what happens, so we are well prepared. When people talk about it makes me feel awkward, maybe this is part of growing a teenage brain. So what does go inside a teenage brain, maybe this isn't all our fault.

The teenage brain is fascinating to scientist’s. It works and thinks in very different ways to a normal adult human brain.  It’s not necessarily what we’re thinking, it's more how we’re thinking. About 15 years ago scientist believed that the human brains were completely formed by the age of 10. But now they have realised that a lot of the development of the human brain is done in teenage hood. Take the frontal lobes as an example, it is the part of your brain that asks you; “Is this a good idea” “what are the consequences if I do this”. This is one part of the brain that hasn’t developed properly yet. I’ve always wondered, why whenever I’ve done something bad/wrong, I didn’t think things through and what the outcomes were before I did it. It is because the nerve cells that connect teenagers frontal lobes with the rest of the brain is sluggish. Teenagers don’t have as much of myelin, which is like a fatty coating, that an adult brain would have in this area. It is like an insulation on an electrical wire. Nerves need myelin for nerve signal to flow freely. Thin myelin causes inefficient communication between one part of a brain and another.

 It's not only the teenage brain that is still developing it is also your body. From the age 8 - 16 you can start puberty at any time. Puberty for a girl includes getting taller, getting wider, hair in different places, pimples and worst of all eventually a period.  The thing for me is I always wish it never would have to happen to me. My mum is always telling me to deal with it, if every other girl in the world can survive it so can I. Teenage hood can become very confusing, especially in intermediate.Many people deny it, but it is true for everyone. Everyone wants to be ‘Cool’. 

To define ‘cool’, I would define it as; When everyone likes someone or how they look, other people want to be like them, so people like them as well, and is now called being cool. In different places being cool will look different. For instance maybe in the south island at a school, wearing a hat is ‘cool’ when it is freezing cold or wearing matching clothes is ‘cool’, but here at our school, at the moment between my friends and I, wearing sporty/black and white clothes is what people think is “cool”. But it's not like we can help it, everyone wants people to like them, even myself. The Definition of cool  is constantly changing in different schools. One day a new kid could walk in and change what everyone wears, all they have to do is act confident and everyone will think that is the new style. Say a teenage girl, we always want to look pretty to everyone, makeup and hair products is a waste of time. I have to admit that I have asked my mum if I can wear makeup or if I can dye my hair, at first she says no, but then I beg her and then she still says no! I ask her why and she tells me I’m to young, it seems to me I’ll always be too young. I realise now she just wants to keep my skin naturally healthy as I don’t need anything like that yet. It's not just what you wear/have on you, it's also what you have. Every teenager thinks life is impossible without a phone. I’m always bugging my mum about when I get a phone, and how it's unfair everyone has one except for me. It's not just having something, it has to be the lastest version as well, and I admit, I want the latest phone and laptop. So to be ‘cool’ you have to have things and wear things. But what is the point in having/wearing these things.  I think the point (for teenagers) to have a phone is social media mainly. For me I would want to wear makeup to cover up pimples and make your skin look perfect. But really I think the overall reason is to impress people.

Everyone in life is trying to impress people, you could have 1000 friends and you would still want to be cool and impress people. But what teenagers don't realise is that when someone is looking for a new friend, they look for people who are themselves. Why would you want someone who pretends to be like someone else, if you wanted someone like that person then you would be friends with that person. People have to like you for who you are, a true relationship. There are 2 main types of relationships, Friend relationships and Love Relationships. Friend relationships is important to life, it's not exactly how much friends you have, it's mainly how good of a friend they are to you. Most people are pressured to thinking that the more friends the better. Some people will do everything to get friends, including being mean to others. Teenagers these think this is OK, I don’t why people would want to be friends with someone who bullies people to get friends. It's not like this for ‘Love’ relationships though. When you have a love relationship it's about what they have in common to you, most people aren’t looking for people who are cool, they want people who are themselves. When a teenager finds someone they ‘like’, we would call it having a crush on someone. Its seems to me that when someone has a crush on someone, some people are mean to their crush, which I don’t understand why some teenagers would do that. Maybe they feel like if their mean to them, then they won’t suspect that they have a crush on them. I’ve had that time when a boy is mean to me, the thing is it doesn't work, it makes people think that's who you really are. It seems to me most people care what's on the outside than what's on the inside. So most people try to look their best, for girls it would mean makeup. The thing I don't get is why teenage girls wear makeup in the first place. Because do you know what makeup does to you're skin, it causes pimples. And of course it seems we have to cover them up with more makeup, which is like a big cycle. For me, I hate pimples. 

What is a pimple. They are an inflammation of the skin in which the oil/sebaceous glands become infected with bacteria, swell up and fill with pus. Extra sebum secretion by the oil/sebaceous glands is the main cause to this problem. They usually appear on the face, neck, back and shoulders. I usually get them on my face, a lot. I usually use face wash in the morning and at night and put pimple cream on that I buy from the shop. Continuing this everyday makes it less visible which is what we most care about. To prevent or get rid of pimples, start with these easy steps. 1. Avoid touching your face with your hands as much as possible as your hands get the most bacteria and dirt than any other part of your body. 2. Wash your hair every day and if you have long hair tie it up, as hair gets very oily as well and is close to your face. 3. Try not use so much man made products on your face, you don’t needs heaps of cream and you don’t need makeup to cover it, it will just make them worse. 4. Eat healthy food and drink lots of water. It is proven that junk food doesn’t cause pimples, but being healthy will lead to healthier skin. When you keep these up, it shouldn’t be too bad. You may feel like you're different sometimes with pimples, for instance, I get lots of pimples but most of my friends get none. Most of the time I become insecure as no one else is going through the same as me. But this will probably be the only thing that hormones cause that not everyone will have to go through. You may be wondering what hormones is, well hormones is a regulatory substance produced in an organism and transported in tissue fluids such as blood or sap to stimulate specific cells or tissues into action. This starts to produce while you go through teenage hood and puberty. Hormones cause a lot things, including; Pimples, mood changes and craving more food. 

Don’t you wish you could stay a kid forever. Maybe you do but on the other side of the teenage hood road is another life, called adulthood. So maybe you will get pimples and hair in new places, you will probably get bigger and taller, you will start to realise who you're real friends are, you will be in many relationships and start to know that life isn’t about being cool, and last of all when you get to adulthood, you won’t have an insecure, annoying, misbehaving teenage brain anymore. That sounds a little extreme but you're brain is only like that if you don’t care, when you know that you're acting a certain way because you're brain is still developing. Just remember a valuable life lesson, always be yourself, and be confident about being you.

RESOURCES:

TEENAGE BRAIN

TED TALK

TEENAGE BRAIN

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT