This usually starts when a girl is about 10 years old. Sometimes, though, a much younger girl starts to show the signs of puberty. These early signs of puberty can be hard for your child. The specialty of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology expertly cares for early puberty in girls. The start of puberty is caused by the hypothalamus the part of the brain that controls the pituitary gland.

Every product is independently selected by obsessive editors. Things you buy through our links may earn us a commission. This story was produced in partnership with Epic Magazine. I got my first pubic hair when I was 2 years old.

One day last year when her daughter, Ainsley, was 9, Tracee Sioux pulled her out of her elementary school in Fort Collins, Colo. Ainsley was the tallest child in her third-grade class. In the back seat, Ainsley wiggled out of her pink parka and looked in her backpack for her Harry Potter book. Over the past three years, Tracee — pretty and well-put-together, wearing a burnt orange blouse that matched her necklace and her bag — had taken Ainsley to see several doctors. They ordered blood tests and bone-age X-rays and turned up nothing unusual.