Boy Bye! Yes that’s what I told him when he tried to talk to me after so many years. Want to know why? Keep reading.

When I was growing up I heard a couple of things about puberty. Body changes, starting your period, hormone levels all over the place and things like that. But no one really told me about the attention that comes with all of that. Which is why I want to share my story with you.

There was this boy on my street – Zain. I had a crush on him for many years, but he never paid me any attention. I tried to talk to him a couple of times, but he often cut our convos short or would pretend like he couldn’t hear me. I took this as a sign that he wasn’t interested. So I called it quits and moved on.

Last summer I had a major growth spurt. I started noticing my boobs were getting bigger, my curves were beginning to show, and my bum too! Turns out I wasn’t the only one noticing these body changes. After years of overlooking me, Zain started saying hi again. First it was a “hello” then he would comment on how I was a “big girl” now and I was looking “good”. He would try and get me to skip school to hang out with him, but I wasn’t having any of that. He wasn’t the only one though. It’s like everyone around me felt the need to tell me how my body was changing.

Yes, I may be a big girl now, but I’m also a smart girl with big dreams. I wasn’t going to let him distract me from achieving my goals. Especially when I thought his attention was not real. It was simple. I told him, “Boy - bye!”

I had no one to talk to when I was going through these changes, so I made an extra effort to share my story with my younger sister and her friends when they started going through the same thing. Talking about changes you experience and sharing your story is beneficial to you and the people you are talking to. Now that my sister and her friends know more, they can make better decisions. So whenever I learn something new about myself and my body, I’m happy to share it if I know it will help other girls too!