(STAT News) – Girls across the globe are hitting puberty earlier than ever before. A 2020 study of 20 countries across six continents found that the median age when girls first experience breast development has dropped by about three months every decade since 1977, shifting from about 10.5 to 9.5 years old. Some research suggests this rate may be accelerating since the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020. In fact, today’s medical definition of precocious puberty — breast budding at the age of 8 or younger — does not even apply to Zaria, though she hit puberty years before the average girl growing up in the 1980s and ’90s and ahead of nearly all her classmates. (Read More)