As a mother of two little girls, I expected that puberty would be a tempestuous time for our family, full of emotional roller coasters and bodily changes. I just didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

You smell terrible, hair starts growing in weird places and red sores break out across your face. No, you’re not turning into a werewolf. It’s just puberty, and every human has to go through it.

Researchers have linked the trend of earlier puberty in Black girls to elevated stress hormones.