Podcast: How to help your tween through puberty, with Kaz Cooke

In the latest episode of The Parenting Couch podcast, Rachel and Sarah talk to Kaz Cooke about how to support your tween through puberty. Kaz is the author of the best-selling Girl Stuff for girls aged 8-12 years,

Got a daughter? Kaz Cooke, Author of Girl Stuff 8-12 years (and many other amazing life-stage books) shares her tips about how to guide your tween girl through body changes, periods as well as inappropriate comments from relatives. Throughout the episode, she emphasises the importance of normalising puberty, and that the experience and timing is different for all girls. And it’s all normal.

Kaz says:

Do not let anyone in the family comment on your child’s body changes. Do not let brothers and sisters tease each other. You need to have a very strong hard rule. Often family members who feel like they have a right to comment of girls bodies – Uncles, Aunts and often grandparents. They’ll say ‘oh you’ve put on weight’, or there’s a judgement built into “Oh you’ve shot up”. It’s astonishing that people in extended families might make comments like ‘Oh, you’re growing out the front now’.

Hear a snippet from the interview

Kaz Cooke shares her recommendations on how to help your daughter manage their period.

Listen to the interview with Kaz Cooke

Listen to the episode of The Parenting Couch interview with Kaz Cooke on your favourite podcast platform.

About Kaz Cooke

Kaz Cooke

Kaz is your friend for life, her books helping generations of girls and women with their health and life stages. She constantly updates her books which have become classics, reassuring and entertaining more than two generations of Australians.

She began her career as a cadet journalist at The Age newspaper, and soon lurched into other areas, producing her cartoon strip Hermoine the Modern Girl; and the first of many columns and books. She still writes things, and talks in public and on the radio. And on the phone.

Kaz lives in Melbourne and often works in her pyjamas (usually without leaving the house). Her hobbies include reading, sewing in a straight line and shouting at the television news.

Girl Stuff 8-12 years

Here’s everything you need to know about being a pre-teen, from Kaz Cooke:

body changes
dealing with friends & bullies
getting confident
first periods
pimples
hair (wherever it is)
phones & being online
what to eat
being fit & healthy
the best books & movies
how to be happy with your own true self
& lots more!

Girl Stuff 8–12 fits under your pillow and is written with the help of medical and other experts.

A letter from Kaz to parents of pre-teen girls

Hello there,

Girl Stuff 8–12 (Your Real Guide to the Pre-Teen Years) is the ‘little sister’ of my award-winning (ooh la) book for teenaged girls, Girl Stuff: Your Full-on Guide to the Teen Years.

Parents often worry that their girls enter puberty ‘too soon’. Girls wonder if they’re ‘normal’ and what to expect. Girl Stuff 8–12 has fun cartoons and a friendly style, and tells girls all they need to know about first periods, body hair, moods and other changes, as well as dealing with friendship groups and bullies. It has lots of helpful info on confidence, body image, staying healthy, phones & social media and family harmony.

Girl Stuff 8–12 gives girls their own pages for notes and daydreams, and has curated lists of good movies, TV shows, books and heroines for girls. (It doesn’t have the chapters on sex, alcohol drugs, and other important info for older girls that’s in the big sister Girl Stuff. Girl Stuff 8–12 has age-appropriate info that’s properly researched with medical and other consultants.

As girls are bombarded with inappropriate messages and hard-sell commercialism, please help provide them with independent, inclusive, practical and kind information with their best interests at heart. Let your favourite pre-teen girl know that she now has her very own new book to put under her pillow!

Thank you,

Kaz Cooke

More help for tweens

Rachel Chappell

Rachel Chappell lives on the upper north shore with her husband and three daughters. She started North Shore Mums Facebook group in May 2012, when she moved to the area with lots of questions, but not many local friends to ask. A year later, she decided to take the Facebook group to the next level by launching the North Shore Mums website. Before children, she worked as a Marketing Manager in women's magazines.

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