Changing Bodies, Changing Lives

by Ruth Bell

"It seems like everyone else has the script. Everyone else knows what's happening and I look around and say, Duh."

Of course, the truth is that no one has the script because there is no script to follow. Chances are you'd find that almost everyone else has questions and worries a lot like yours, if you could get them to admit it. This brand-new, completely updated and revised edition of Changing Bodies, Changing Lives is full of honest, accurate, nonjudgmental information on everything teenagers need to know about today.

Am I the only one who

can't get up the nerve to ask someone out?
got my period so early?
doesn't even know the right way to kiss?
feels pressured to use drugs?
still hasn't hit puberty yet?
wants to avoid the gang scene?
worries when my mom doesn't come home at night?
is scared that I might have AIDS?
can't decide what form of birth control to use?
has no idea how to tell my friends I'm gay?
goes on eating binges?
has never had an orgasm?
is shut out of the popular crowd?

Changing Bodies, Changing Lives has helped hundreds of thousands of teenagers make informed decisions about their lives, from questions about sex, love, friendship, and how your body works to dealing with problems at school and home and figuring out who you are. It's packed with illustrations, checklists, and resources for the answers you really need. Best of all, it's filled with the voices, poems, and cartoons from hundreds of other teenagers, who tell you what makes them feel worried, angry, confused, sexy, happy, and, yes, even excited and hopeful about their lives. (Check out the first two pages for a sample of the quotes you'll find inside.)

Being a teenager is tough. With the information and the ideas inside this book, you'll have what you need to make these years the best they can be.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Health, Sexuality, Parenting, Relationships, Teen

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 1981

About the author

Ruth Bell is a member of the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, which authored Our Bodies, Ourselves. She has worked for many years in the field of health and sex education, especially in programs for teenagers. She is the mother of a son in his twenties and a teenage daughter.

Reviews

[Jennifer Zwelling · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mother gave me the first edition this book when I was pretty young (11, 12?) I think she gave it to me instead of arranging to have "the talk" with me about sex. She made an excellent choice. I was much more comfortable learning from this book than I would have been learning from my mother!!! I especially like that this book has tons of direct quotes from real teenagers about what it is like to live in a teenage body and mind. The mechanical information about sex is strait forward and accurate. The stuff about emotions and different kinds of relationships (not just sexual) is real and helpful. I bought a copy of the new edition for my step-son when he turned 13. I had never seen him so thankful!

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read initially on the cusp of puberty myself, and the most recent edition as the parent of a teen. Time does fly! (Still a great resource, though sadly outdated in a few areas - time for a fourth edition)

[Kaori Flores · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it about 20 years ago and it was one of the best books my parents bought me to learn about sexuality. Good anecdotic writing, easy to understand.

[Elisabeth]

Excellent and non-judgmental all-round guide to teenage sexuality. From the Our Bodies, Ourselves group, but this one is for male and female teens.

[Alicia Zuto · Rating 5 out of 5]

The authors put an extensive amount of care and research into this book. It's a great source of comfort, resources and entertainment. Bella approved:)
I would definitely recommend this to all young people, parents and teachers. I'm beyond that age but felt it was a very real way to understand and hear how young people feel when they aren't afraid to speak out. A great guide for adults who have teenagers in their life through work or parenting or whatever. It has resources for the struggles every teen faces like puberty, getting your period for the first time, having sex or ways to refrain from it if someone chooses. It also has a lot about dating, broken hearts, birth control, friendship, family, runaways and so forth. It covers emotional health care and issues that some children / young adults have to face unkindly such as abuse, living with violence, suicide, forced into the sex industry, unplanned pregnancies and so much more. It includes phone numbers, websites, shelters for teens etc I respect the authors for being able to create such a full source of information without playing the adult tone of forbidding or preaching so teens are turned away. She includes an endless amount of testimonial style real life short stories from preteens and teens on every subject that she touches in on. Some authors are not able to separate from their role of an adult that is imperative in creating a book that isn't sugar-coated. Ruth Bell remembers and knows that teens face a lot of hardships and doesn't downplay their feelings or experiences. She is sure to highlight the good experiences every young adult should be having or looking forward to. There is poetry throughout the book in relation to each topic. A variety of options, ideas and so forth. I guess that's what that's why it's such a big book in size as well:)

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thorough.

[Radiolab]

Radiolab asked listeners for their sex ed recommendations.

Q, a Radiolab listener, says, "This book had it all, at just the right time. It was a huge volume, an older edition given to me in 1998 when I was 13 years old. It had photographs of real genitals, stories of real people's experiences, discussions of sexual fantasy, shaving, menstruation, abuse, dating, disease, contraception. It was written in such an accepting way that it formed a basis for my sex-positive views today. I bet the hippie edition is outdated now but it was essential to my development."

[3Kaleema]

Do you think books should be banned? I think books should have a limit on them. Some of theses books contain sexual content, homosexuality, and violence. For example, children should have an age limit on certain books with their parents consent a reviewed by teachers or staff at their school.
I feel as though books shouldn’t be banned completely, they should have some kind of restriction. In order to read books with sexual content student should maintain at least a B average in reading and language arts and get a letter from their parents saying that its ok to read books that are banned. Sexual content is the most common basis for such bans. In modern societies it is typical for material with sexual content to be made unavailable to children, without banning it altogether for adults, but certain kinds of content may receive a complete ban.
Children in the sixth grade and below should not be able to read books about sex nor violence. Some books are just not to be read by children under the age of 11 because they might take the book context and turn it to some thing else because they don’t understand. By children being so young they would do the opposite of what their parents tell them and follow the book. In addition, everyone in our class research and did a presentation on banned books. Some people parents were upset because the banned books their child was assigned had a lot of controversy about religion and belief.
In conclusion books shouldn’t be banned completely because it’s taking away the knowledge for others to learn. Books should have some kind of rating system and a consent form from the parents and the administrator.

[Kimberly Hallahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-balanced presentation of the facts of change through adolescence, this is an excellent resource for teens. Sharing the voices of actual teens expressing their feelings and experiences, this book admirably counters the false expectations and “realities” presented in much of our magazines, television and movies, and also addresses the mixed messages and double standards that teens encounter in our society. A young person who reads this book will be assured that he/she is not alone in what he/she is experiencing, will read the no-nonsense “facts of life” and where to find more resources about them, will be encouraged to listen to the thoughts and advice of parents, adult mentors, and friends, and, most of all, will be empowered to think about, explore, and identify his/her own feelings and beliefs, and to honor them.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book came out a few years after I first read Our Bodies, Ourselves. It was a very necessary and important guide for teenagers at the time, and the open-minded discussion of subjects such as birth control, abortion, same-sex relationships, and masturbation, was a revelation at the time. I had the opportunity to see the newest edition recently and it is still a worthy book for teenagers.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for teens and their parents.

[Nell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little outdated with lgbt+ topics but besides that is pretty brilliant.