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Reaching New Heights

Get ready to grow!

Ready, Set, Grow!

Since toddler age, you’ve grown about two inches every

year. But at some point, usually around age 9 or 10,

you’ll enter a growth spurt and grow faster than ever

before. The average girl grows three and a half inches per

year during this time. And whether it happens earlier or

later during puberty (the time when the body begins to develop and change), it almost always lasts about two to three years.

But your body may grow in unpredictable ways. You could

grow fast when you’re young, and then stop growing

before other girls even begin their growth spurts, making

you the tallest girl in elementary school but one of the

shorter girls in high school. Or maybe you’ll have your

growth spurt much later, surprising friends in high school

by becoming a tall teenager when you started out on the

small side. Girls can start tall and stay tall or start small

and stay small, too.

How Will You Measure Up?

Only time will tell how tall you’ll be, but with a bit of

math you can try to predict your future. To do so, take

your dad’s height in inches and subtract five (that’s how

tall he might have been if he had been a girl). Then add

your mom’s height in inches and divide the total number

by two. This is your mid-parental height. Body height isn’t

an exact science, so there is a pretty good chance that

you will be around that height, give or take two inches—

but no guarantee.

(Note: The math is different for boys. If you were trying to predict your brother’s

height, for example, you would add five inches to your mom’s height and then

add that number to your dad’s height and divide by two.)

Sample equation:

If your mom is 5′3″

and your dad is 5′10″,

then you would do

the following math:

5′3″ = 63″; 5′10″ = 70″

70

– 5

65″

65

+63

128″

128

÷ 2

64″

64″ = 5′4″, your estimated

height, give or take 2″.