How to talk about puberty in a gender

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Educators who teach elementary-age students about puberty now have a resource to help make their lessons as inclusive as possible.

The new publication focuses on five key principles for gender-inclusive puberty health and education: teaching students gender literacy, helping them understand natural variation, emphasizing physiology instead of gender, describing the "many pathways" that children can grow into adult bodies, and, similarly, explaining the different pathways to starting a family.

Gender Spectrum, a nonprofit organization that works to "create a gender-inclusive world for all children and youth," created the guidelines after years of developing and testing them.

The resource is designed to make all kids feel included when the classroom conversation turns to puberty, said Joel Baum, senior director of professional development for Gender Spectrum. Adolescence, after all, is often portrayed as a universal normative experience when in reality it can look different for each child as some mature faster or slower than others. Baum stressed, however, that reflecting diverse experiences in non-binary language can make a big difference for young students, particularly for those who are transgender or gender non-conforming.

"The fact of the matter is that for some of our kids, this is life saving because they do not see themselves represented," said Baum. "For some of our most vulnerable youth, when they see, 'Someone sees me, too," that is so tremendously important."

The principles laid out by Gender Spectrum have been endorsed by several national organizations that work on youth issues, such as Planned Parenthood, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, and GLSEN.

While the document is designed for educators, Baum said it can also be used by parents and young people. The goal is to provide a comprehensive framework that uses scientifically accurate language when discussing puberty with older elementary school students. LGBTQ-inclusive resources exist for sex ed instruction in middle and high school, but few of them address gender specifically for young people.

"We have seen the need for this resource based on our communication with educators and students," said Becca Mui, education manager at GLSEN, an advocacy organization for LGBTQ youth. "We talk about having inclusive language and being trans- and [gender non-conforming]-affirming and supportive, but without giving educators examples and developmentally appropriate ways, folks aren’t really able to do the work."

When teaching students about gender literacy, the document recommends helping students understand that gender is about one's body, identity, and how they express their gender to the world. A person's genitalia isn't the sole predictor of their gender, and gender can be viewed on a spectrum.

A principle on teaching students how to distinguish "patterns from rules" emphasizes the importance of talking about variations in human physiology. That can include the fact that intersex people are born with variations of internal and external sex anatomy and, as a result, don't fit into typical classifications of being female or male. Moreover, bodies that "conform with a male or female classification" are also physiologically diverse, including in height, body shape, and hormone level differences. These differences often go unmentioned, which can make all children feel like there's something wrong with their experience of puberty.

The principles could easily be misconstrued by critics as an attempt to indoctrinate young students. One principle that recommends focusing on physiology rather than gender includes sample language like: "For the most part when I talk about bodies I’ll talk about bodies with a penis and testicles or bodies with a vulva and ovaries. You might wonder why I’m doing this instead of just saying male bodies or female bodies. As we’ve discussed, there aren’t just two kinds of bodies."

It's easy to see how that could become the subject of an alarmist Fox News segment, but Baum says that many young students are already thinking very deeply about gender and want to see the full range of experiences represented in their classrooms. He also acknowledges that while teachers in some school districts may be unable to apply all of the document's principles to their lessons, they will find something in the document to help students feel affirmed.

"A lot of what we try to do with schools is meet them where they are," says Baum. "You need to make choices that make sense for you."

Baum notes that in schools where they've tested the principles, both teachers and students seem more relaxed once they dive into the conversation.

We'll trade tense smiles and red faces for an engaging, laid-back, scientifically accurate classroom discussion of puberty any day.