Girls Have Curves

I bet that surprised some of you.

Physical changes occur in both boys and girls—I believe girls start to change first—and it is about this time that boys will start to recognize that girls are different and they will react differently to that realization.

It’s also at this time that a boy will start to notice the physical characteristics of girls in general.

As we’ve seen, up until now there hasn’t been that much a boy will notice about a girl—as far as differences, but now he’s starting to see (and focus) on different areas of her body and he’s starting to think about them as more of a companion than competition or a playmate.

His Two Reactions

There are two typical reactions to this change in perception.

The Player/Romancer

This boy realizes that there are differences, and he starts to try to form relationships with the opposite sex.  It is these guys that are the ones that you want your girl to stay away from, for both sexes are trying to figure out the change, and this “young man” has basically one thing on his mind.

The Withdrawer

This was me.  I withdrew—even going so far as to tell people “I don’t like girls.”  I didn’t date a girl until my Senior year of high school—though I was close friends with more than a few.

Both of these reactions are an attempt to deal with feelings and thoughts that he’s now having that he’s never had before.

Inside His Mind

The mind of a pre-teen and teenage boy is a weird place indeed.  Along with trying to figure out why there are zits on your face and how to manage different classes in school, your body is going through changes you don’t fully comprehend, and things that never really stuck in your mind are hard not to think about.

Before this stage, a girl was pretty or cute, but you didn’t really care.  You may have even thought you’d marry someone, but that was probably based on how fun they were to be with¹.  During this phase of development, though, most guys start to notice the distinctly feminine features.

Women are starting to develop, and the boys notice.  In fact, if I had to try to bring back memories of this kind from my past, I remember seeing that girls were developing breasts and that their legs attracted me in short skirts².

I knew when girls were dressing for attention, and there was plenty of talk around school when a specific girl had more the morals of an alley-cat than a lady.

Ignorance Can Be a Pain

Innocence can be a great thing.  It’s a whole lot easier to refuse something that you’ve never done—you don’t know what you’re missing.  However, ignorance also can feed curiosity.

If I had to use one word to describe boys at this stage, it’d be curious.

• That girl that they grew up with now has a pair of breasts.
• She makes my heart patter as she walks by.
• She attracts me in the clothes she wears.
• I wonder what she looks like in her underwear.
• I wonder what she looks like in less.

Regardless of whether they’ve seen their mom breastfeed or their sister—he still wonders.  And this feeds his desire to find out more.

So, his mind wanders, and so do his eyes.  They glance through the button-down shirt to see if they can catch a glimpse—and even a bra may turn them on.

Even if they know it’s wrong, they look at a girl’s body and wonder—and this is where modesty comes into play.

If your clothing does not attract a boy to your body, he will be looking at who you are.  To this day, I think that one of the most “attractive” outfits I saw on a girl in high school—that I thought was pretty—was a colored turtleneck with a button-down shirt overtop.  Modest, and yet cute.

I can also tell you about a few other memorable outfits that are memorable for the wrong reasons.  The question is, how do you want to be seen and remembered?

I'm a 35 year old guy married to the most beautiful woman in the world (VirtuousBlonde) for 10 years, and has 4 mostly adorable children-- depending on whether they've had a nap, of course. I'm a software developer by trade, though I like to write on various topics. I got my start in blogging at MInTheGap in 2004 writing about culture, politics and got started talking about modesty on this site just 2 years ago.

1. In some ways, I wish we could stay at that stage! [↩]
2. I attended public high school, and though it wasn’t risqué the way that the girls dressed, it was enough to get my attention. [↩]