The Girls’ Guide to Growing Up by Terri Couwenhoven
Short Summary
The Girl’s Guide to Growing Up: Choices and Changes in the Tween Years by Terri Couwenhoven is a clear, visual puberty book for tweens that explains body changes, feelings, periods, hygiene, and privacy in a very concrete way. It is popular with many parents, especially those looking for straightforward puberty books for neurodivergent kids, but it is not particularly inclusive and only includes one brief, heterosexual explanation of how a pregnancy begins.
Age Group
Suitable for tweens, roughly 8 to 12 years.
Topics Discussed
Puberty (All) | Puberty (Sex) | Puberty (Girls only) | Puberty (Girls + Sex) | Periods | Tweens
Note: Sex Ed Rescue is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. See our disclosure for more information.
Buy a Copy
Buy a copy of The Girls’ Guide to Growing Up by Terri Couwenhoven from Amazon.
What this book is about
- The Girl’s Guide to Growing Up: Choices and Changes in the Tween Years is a puberty book by Terri Couwenhoven. The author’s surname is spelt Couwenhoven.
- It explains the basics of puberty, including what puberty is, when it may start, and the physical and emotional changes that happen during the tween years.
- The book covers periods, body care, hygiene, and the difference between public and private behaviour.
- It uses lots of visuals, including drawings and photos, to help explain the information clearly.
- The updated edition includes newer period products such as period underwear, along with practical pictures showing how to use pads, what blood may look like on a pad, and when to change it.
- The language and format are very concrete, which is one reason these books are often recommended to families of autistic and disabled kids.
- This book is mostly focused on puberty only. It does not cover topics like porn or consent.
- There is one brief mention of sex when the book explains that a pregnancy can begin when a sperm from a man and an egg from a woman join together, usually through sex.
- The book is not especially inclusive. For example, it says boys and men do not get periods, which leaves out some transgender people who do have a uterus and may menstruate.
- So… this could be a helpful choice if you want a simple, visual puberty guide and you are okay with a book that is quite basic and not very inclusive.
I hope you find this book review helpful!
Happy talking!
❤️ Cath