Puberty

I'm currently working with kids whose ages range from 12 to 17 (which translates to grades 7 through 12).  And just looking at the kids in a casual glance, I'm realizing that the vast majority of them have not yet gone through puberty?

The reason for the question mark is a) sometimes it's hard to tell and b) I'm not actively staring at the actors pondering this (which would be horribly creepy), it was more an idle observation.

But, the majority of the actors are 16 and 17 but it looks like only two of the guys shave.  One of the boy's (14) voice hasn't broken.  Most of the girls still haven't really started to develop.  The seniors in high school generally have, but the juniors in high school definitely haven't, which just seems interesting to me.

This was just really surprising to me.  I started puberty stupidly early (needing a bra by third grade) and my sisters didn't start at that much of a later age (around fifth grade).  Most of my friends were in similar situations.

If you do a quick google search about the age puberty starts you'll find numbers like: 9-13 for girls and 10-14 for boys.  So why are these actors so different when there's a plethora of research saying that the age of puberty is starting earlier and earlier.

Maybe it's just my own experience skewing my opinion? That's certainly possible.  I don't know, anyone have any thoughts?

Also, I apologize if this post seems creepy, it really really wasn't intended that way.  And anticipate Saturday posts to be about my observations of junior high and high school students since I work with them for 6+ hours those days.