HEY MIKE! I’m 15, and I don’t have any hair down there. In fact, my face and body still look like those of an elementary school kid, not a young man. Am I OK?
—Name Withheld
Yes, you are OK. As you’ve heard me say many times in this column, each guy has his own normal biological timetable for development.
Your sexual changes are triggered by a tiny organ near the center of your brain that operates like an internal command center. It’s called the pituitary gland, and it stores the blueprint for your entire body. Your very own “manhood morphing process” is controlled by the pituitary gland. In other words, this command center sends out hormones that tell the rest of your body that it’s time to grow up. (For more on this, check out Preparing for Adolescence by Dr. James Dobson.)
While it’s frustrating to mature later than some of your peers, understand that you won’t remain trapped in a child’s body forever. Sometime soon your hormones will get their marching orders, and you’ll begin the awesome transformation from boy to man.
In the meantime, here are a few body facts to think about:
• Guys having Asian or American Indian genes tend not to become as hairy as those of European or African descent.
• You’ll grow and develop at a similar rate as your parents when they experienced puberty. (Consider sharing your concerns with your dad or family physician.)
• God created you, which means you are a valuable, one-of-a-kind masterpiece. The Bible says you are “fearfully and wonderfully made”: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:13-16). 
