What the Heck is "Second Puberty"? Why Things Seemed to Have BLOOMED Lately...

That moment in your 20s when you wake up and things seem.....different.

You can't put your finger on it, but things seem thicker....heavier. Chest is fuller, your rear end.....WAIT, I have a butt now? Have I gained more weight? I haven't done anything differently lately. Why is my skin suddenly different? I feel weird.

These are just some of the thoughts that have crossed my mind lately, and given my current discomfort (and clothes not fitting quite right anymore), I did what I usually do.

I Googled and asked Bing, TikTok, and whatever else.

The internet's answer? "Second Puberty".

But what....IS THAT? I thought puberty only happened during the teenage years?

"I thought I was THROUGH.", you might think.

It's important to know that "Second Puberty" isn't a medically recognized term. It doesn't have a medical definition, but it's the best term used to describe the changes a lot of women claim to have experienced, usually after 25 to their early 30s.

During my research, I came across several experiences, humorous before and after TikToks showing women with average bodies and their new bigger chests and filled out bodies, reddit posts of women talking about their weight gain, the experience of feeling more "womanly", having extra padding "back there", and much more.

Other experiences included more or less body hair, hair color and texture changes, and bra re-sizing.

Yep. Checks out and matches up to what I've been going through. So, it's not just me.

But WHY is this happening? What is the cause? Is it all in our heads?

Turns out, our bodies are constantly evolving. The body we have in our teens isn't our final one. The body in our early 20s won't be the final version we end up with.

This would have been nice to know beforehand. I've seen the topic come up before, but I never thought it would happen to me. But....here we are.

All I've got from this is that the current weight and extra fat I'm attempting to shed will be slightly harder to lose this time around. (I have been going to the gym lately and making progress, but noticed things are slightly slower to shape up this time around).

Either that, or things HAVE been improving but the extra padding makes a visual difference. Not too noticeable, though, which is good.

I suppose this is what improvements look like with a more shapely and thicker body, I suppose.

"Just wait until you reach 40." I see some middle-aged women quip. *shudders*

YAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY.....😒

But you know what? That's change for you. Change happens in life, and eventually you learn to roll with it. I am still learning to roll with some things, but knowing and learning about things is the first step to minimizing fear.