Whoa--Guess What Age Some Girls Are Hitting Puberty These Days (P.S.: When Did It Happen to You?)

Oh, puberty. I was somewhere between 13 and 14 when I was finally, officially in the club. It seemed to take for-freaking-ever, but the truth was that the other girls were only about six months to a year ahead (which, of course, might as well have been a lifetime back then). I was pretty ready--but if I had been the age that some of today's girls are facing puberty, I can honestly say I would have been so confused and freaked out.

These days, going through puberty before the age of 10 is considered "normal." The New York Times spoke with a mother about her daughter, who she's been taking from physician to physician, because the 9-year-old started developing pubic hair at the age of 6. She was in first grade.
Experts have noted that some girls are experiencing budding breasts at an earlier age--as young as 7 years old. And what's especially flummoxing to researchers is that, even though the onset of puberty seems to hit earlier and earlier, the age for menarche--a girl's first period--has stayed pretty steady over the years, at about 12.5 years old (down from about 12.8 years).
As to why girls are experiencing "precocious puberty," experts have a few leads:
* Overweight girls tend to enter puberty earlier. Fat tissue can set off "a feedback loop that can cause a body to mature."
* The exposure to certain environmental chemicals can lead to earlier puberty. Estrogen-mimics, such as BPA (found in some plastics and processed foods), "behave like steroid hormones and can alter puberty timing." About 93 percent of us have traces of BPA in our bodies--more than a million pounds of the substance are released into the environment each year. (Holy. Cow.)
* Family stress can apparently be a major contributor: "Girls who from an early age grow up in homes without their biological fathers are twice as likely to go into puberty younger as girls who grow up with both parents." Some research also shows that girls who grow up with stepfathers and girls who have mothers with depression mature earlier.
Some of these factors can be counteracted, to a degree--exercise can help prevent early puberty, for example. But experts and researchers are still putting together all the pieces of the puzzle, and urge parents of early developers to take care of their daughters' emotional wellbeing--supporting them, loving them, and treating them as they age they are, not as the age they look.
How old were you when puberty hit? Any thoughts or reactions to the "new normal" age for girls to go through puberty?