Growing Up: Body, Feelings, Behavior

This leader is provided to permit the projectionist to make adjustments before the film begins. The volume and tone are identical with the soundtrack which follows. Heat. Heat. I'd sure like to look like that when I grow up. It would be great to be a leader like that. Grown-ups sure act silly sometimes. really dumb. I'm not going to be like that. I wonder how it will feel to be a parent. >> It can be fun to think about what it will be like when you're grown up. It can be a little scary, too. Will you be ready for it? Yes, you will. Because you're changing inside and out in a way that prepares you for being an adult. [Applause] In the next few years, there will be changes in your body. Changes in the way you feel about yourself and about others and changes in the way you behave, the kind of person you are. I haven't seen you in a long time, Freddy. You've certainly changed. You're really growing up. >> Growing up? What does it mean to grow up? >> Good question. Babies and children are always growing up to be adults. Adults in all sizes and shapes. They have hair of different colors, eyes of different colors, and skin of different colors. A wonderful assortment of different bodies, different faces, and different races. How do you know if someone is a man or a woman? Men are usually a little larger and taller, but that's not always true. And men and women usually dress differently. Although that's not always true either. One of the most important things that can be different between two people is their sex. whether they are a man or woman. And that's a wonderful and very special difference. Men and women have different sexual characteristics. The man's shoulders are usually wider than his hips. In addition to the hair on his head, he has hair on his face and usually on other parts of his body, including the pubic area. He has the same outside parts that he was born with, but they're larger now. A penis and a sack that hangs beneath the penis called a scrotum. Inside the scrotum, he has two testicles. By the time he is a man, these testicles are producing sperm, tiny cells that make it possible for a man to become a father. When a woman is grown, her hips are usually wider than a man's hips so that she has room for a baby to grow inside of her. And she has breasts so that she can feed the baby with milk from her own body. She usually has less hair on her body and face than a man has, but like a man, she also has hair on her pubic area. Inside her body, she has everything she needs for her part in becoming a mother. These reproductive organs consist of the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and uterus. The vagina leads to the outside of the body. In each ovary, she carries eggs, which are the female part of making a baby. Each egg is smaller than the tip of a pin. These eggs have been there since the day she was born. About once a month, one of the eggs ripens. It leaves the ovary and it starts to travel down the fallopian tube. About the same time, the uterus forms a special lining to provide nourishment and protection to the egg if it should become fertilized. If the egg is not fertilized, the body will get rid of it. The egg, the lining and some blood will pass out of the body through the vagina. This bleeding out of the vagina is normal. It is called menstruation. It's also called having a period. When a woman is not pregnant, she will menstruate about once a month. When babies are born, whether they are boys or girls, they have all of the organs they need to reproduce, but they are not yet fully developed. As boys and girls grow, some parts of the body grow faster than other parts. For example, a child's legs and arms may grow so they look too long for the rest of the body. But before you know it, the other parts catch up and all parts of the body look just right for you. Up to the ages of about 9 or 10, most boys and girls grow at just about the same rate. Even so, one child might be taller or shorter, heavier, or lighter than another child of the same age. Each child is normal, although we are all a little different from each other. If you get enough healthful food, exercise, and sleep, you will grow up in the way that's right for you as an individual. At about 9 or 10, boys and girls usually start growing at different rates because they begin puberty at different times. Puberty is when a person's body gets ready to reproduce. The time between starting puberty and reaching adulthood is called adolescence. Girls usually start puberty a little earlier than boys do. Sometime between 9 and 16 years old. >> I really grew up fast. Now I'm taller than most boys my age. >> That may last for a couple of years. During adolescence, the girl's body begins to look like a woman's body. She gets the body hair that a woman has, and the eggs in her ovaries start to ripen, one each month. Boys very often reach puberty a little later than girls, sometime between 13 and 15. But during adolescence, boys usually catch up to girls in size quickly. and they're likely to grow taller than girls by the time they're fully grown. During adolescence, the boy takes the shape of a man. He gets the body hair that a man has. >> And my voice box gets bigger. So, >> my voice changes. It sounds deeper than it did when I was younger. Inside his testicles, he starts making the sperm he will need to reproduce. When boys and girls have reached the end of their adolescence, they're physically able to have children of their own. By the time girls are about 16 to 18 and boys are about 18 or 20, they have reached their full sizes. As they get older, they may get heavier or thinner, but they don't get any taller. But to be really grown up, men and women have to be ready to take responsibility for the children they may have. If they are to be fathers and mothers, they have to be ready to take responsibility for themselves, for those they love, and for those who love them. Have you ever considered how babies are born? During sexual intercourse, sperm are mixed with other fluids from the man's body to form semen. The semen goes from the man's penis into the woman's vagina. Through a microscope, you can see what the sperm look like magnified hundreds of times. Each sperm has a tail which moves back and forth so that the sperm can move into the woman's vagina and up into her uterus and tubes. Here in one of the tubes, an egg on its journey from an ovary to the uterus is waiting to be fertilized. Although many sperm may reach the egg, it will take only one sperm to fertilize the egg. Fertilization occurs when the sperm and the egg join together to form a single cell. The single cell divides into two cells. Then each of these cells divides. The cells keep dividing and that is how a baby is begun. The growing fertilized egg moves along the tube until it settles in the uterus. Here it gradually begins to take the shape of a baby and the mother's uterus stretches to make room for the growth. In the uterus, it gets from the mother the nourishment it needs. Food and oxygen move from the mother's blood to the placenta which is attached to the uterus. A special tube called the umbilical cord carries this nutrition from the placenta to the growing baby. About 9 months after the egg cell was fertilized by a sperm cell, the baby is ready to be born. The uterus starts squeezing in sort of a rhythm. This is called labor. This squeezing slowly pushes the baby into the mother's vagina, which stretches to let the baby through, and the baby is born. [Music] The baby doesn't need the umbilical cord anymore, so the cord is cut and tied off. This doesn't hurt the mother or the baby. It just leaves the baby with a belly button where the umbilical cord was attached. The baby will keep growing until, as we have seen, it is grown up and perhaps one day is ready to have children of its own. As you grow up, more things change than just your body. How you feel about yourself and about other people changes, too. The changes in your feelings are getting you ready to be grown up. >> Like children, adults deal with their feelings at home, at work, and at play. >> Maybe the most important feeling is how they feel about themselves and how they feel about being a man or about being a woman. Just like children do, men and women get angry. >> They sometimes get anxious and afraid. They sometimes feel sadness. But grown-ups may understand and control their feelings better than children do. >> For example, someone who is nervous may get those familiar butterflies in the stomach. Because grown-ups from more years of experience know that this is normal, they don't worry as much as children do about feeling that way. >> Good morning. >> Like children, adults feel love, but it's a more mature kind of love. They feel love for members of their family and for friends. and they feel a different kind of love for that special someone. They feel good when they share their thoughts and feelings with the other person. They touch, hold hands, kiss. They may just look at each other and smile in a special way. >> When you're a kid, you sure don't always understand how grown-ups feel. But whether you know it or not, as you grow up, you're getting ready to share those special feelings with some very special person. When we were little babies, it felt good to be held close. As we get older, that kind of loving still makes us feel good. As we grow up, our feelings of love change. When we're younger, we might say, >> "Boys are dumb. >> Girls are silly." >> But when we get older, we start thinking differently. >> You try to look good so some special guy will notice you. >> You kind of show off so she'll think you're really something. When you get a little older, you may start dating or feel especially close to someone. It's really nice to feel this way, but it can be scary, too. It may be a little embarrassing and confusing. >> All these feelings are normal. And if we don't have a special boyfriend or girlfriend, that's okay, too. There's no rush. At certain ages, you usually feel better when you're with children of your own sex, doing things and having fun together. >> You may even have a best friend. You know, someone you can really trust, and you can tell them things you wouldn't tell anyone else in the world. >> Whenever you're with other children or with adults, you're learning to grow up in another way, too. You're learning to behave the right way and get along with other people. >> As adults, people have to work together and cooperate to get things done and to enjoy themselves. >> You may not be able to control how your body grows or even how you feel, but you usually can control how you behave. And that's part of growing up. For example, when we share something, we show that we care for someone else, that we want to get along. >> Sharing makes us both feel good, too. >> Sometimes it's hard to do what you know is right. It's especially hard when your friends are doing the wrong thing. But this is how you learn to make decisions for yourself. When you're not sure if something is right or wrong, it might help to talk things over with your mother or father or with a teacher. Just talking about things can make you feel better. As we play and work with others, we're getting to know about other people who may be like us or different from us. All the time we're changing. Our bodies grow, our feelings change, and we learn how to get along better with others. Each of us in our own special way and in our own special time is preparing to be an adult. Each of us is growing up. [Music]