THE BOOK
We were prepared for the first puberty.
No one prepared us for this one.
The Other Puberty is the conversation I went looking for when I no longer quite recognized my body, my emotions—or myself.
WHAT THIS BOOK IS
what this book is
I thought it was just me…
I didn't set out to write a book about menopause.
I started with a much more personal question:
What is happening to me?
I was still the same woman—wife, mother, professional, friend. But I didn't always feel like her.My body was changing. My emotions surprised me. Words sometimes disappeared when I needed them. And underneath all of it was the unsettling feeling that I should somehow be handling this better.
Eventually, I realized the problem wasn't that I was failing at this season.
I simply hadn't been given the language for it.
Menopause is part of the story. But it isn't the whole story.
THE BODY
What happens when the body you've known begins changing without asking permission?
THE LIFE AROUND IT
Marriage. Motherhood. Work. Aging. Desire. Faith. The relationships don't disappear simply because you're changing.
THE WOMAN BECOMING
And eventually, a different question emerges: Who am I now?
You May Recognize Yourself Here
The dress that suddenly doesn't fit.
The word that disappears in the middle of a sentence.
The 2 a.m. question you can't quite quiet.
The husband who knows something has changed but doesn't know what.
The children who don't need you in quite the same way anymore.
The woman in the mirror you're still learning to recognize.
These are some of the places The Other Puberty goes—not because every woman's experience is the same, but because too many of us have experienced pieces of it without realizing other women have, too.
A book to read slowly.
Some pages may make you laugh.
Some may make you uncomfortable.
Some may make you call someone and say,
“Did this happen to you too?”
That's the conversation I hope this book begins.
Don't just finish the book. Stay with what found you.
I created the complimentary Companion Guide for the moments when something on the page feels familiar.
Pause. Write about it. Talk about it. Give language to something you've been carrying quietly.
