almost always relaxes the brain and helps you fall asleep. But don’t picka book that is too exciting or scary, because this can have the opposite effect!
Reading a story that feels comfortable and soothing is a great way to wind down
for sleep.
Keeping Clean
Soap is key in helping to keep you stink-free!
Suds Up
As you start to go through puberty, your body will make
smells it never made before—and not great smells, either!
Your feet may get stinky (a smell you may notice when you
take your shoes and socks off after a long day at school).
Or perhaps your feet will smell fine, but your armpits will
not. Regardless of where the stink starts, washing with
soap is a simple solution.
Whether you take a bath or a shower, use soap, lather it
up, and wash yourself from head to toe. Use a washcloth,
sponge, or loofah to help. Almost any soap will do, but if
you have sensitive skin, stay away from soaps with dyes or
perfumes, and skip using bubbles when taking a bath.
While most girls your age need to take a bath or shower
every day, you don’t need to wash your hair quite as often.
Talk to your mom or dad about the best schedule for you.
Keep Your Hands Clean
When you touch something—such as a doorknob, a desk,
or a computer keyboard—it is covered with germs from
other people who have touched it before. Your body is
meant to fight different kinds of germs naturally. But if you
put your germ-covered fingers in your mouth (for example,
when eating a sandwich or biting your nails), the germs can
go right inside your body. And even though your body can
fight off most germs most of the time, sometimes you
may get sick.
The quick fix is to wash your hands before you eat and
always after you use the bathroom. That way all of the
germs you’ve collected go right down the drain. Use soap
and water and—if you can—wash for about 20 seconds,
which is how long it takes to sing the “Happy Birthday”
song twice.
Your pubic area, which is the V-shaped patch between your hip bones and your legs, also needs to be cleaned. But you may want to ditch the soap when you do because soap can be irritating. Just take a wet washcloth and gently wipe between the labia (Tap Here) to clean the area.
Antibacterial hand
sanitizers seem to be
available just about
everywhere you go:
schools, grocery stores,
doctors’ offices. While
hand sanitizers are OK
to use when a sink isn’t
available, washing with
soap and water (and
making a good lather) is
always the best choice.
Deodorants and Antiperspirants
Armpits can be particularly stinky areas because they get very hot and sweaty,
and then that sweat combines with the bacteria that live on your skin. The
result: you smell. You actually sweat (and can make smells) all over your body,
but because the skin is folded over in the armpits, the sweat stays around longer,
creating a better chance to stink. Other parts of the body where there isn’t a lot
of air breezing by—like sock-covered feet—can be sweaty and smelly for the
same reason.
Lots of products are available to keep bad armpit smells away. Deodorants do what
their name says: they deodorize. This means that you’ll still sweat but the sweat
won’t smell when you use a deodorant. Antiperspirants are entirely different. These
stop (“anti”) sweating (“perspiration”). If you don’t sweat in the first place, you won’t
smell. Some girls choose one type of product, some choose a combination (anti-
perspirant plus deodorant), and some choose none at all, sticking with bathing
instead. A parent can help you decide what works best for you.
Pimple Prevention
If there are bumps and spots all over the place, it’s not
a human dot-to-dot game—it’s probably just acne.
Zits Are the Pits
If you could look at your skin under a microscope, you’d
see a bunch of tiny holes called pores. Pores release sweat to cool down the body. However, when you start puberty, hormones also tell your skin to make more oils. Those oils can clog pores, and bacteria that normally live on your skin can get trapped. Before you know it, pimples pop up. And since you have skin all over your body, that means you can get acne just about anywhere—but usually on your face, neck, chest, scalp,
