A Guide to Puberty from 1983

From the excellent Studies in Crap by Alan Scherstuhl, a book called "Am I Normal?" that attempted to help the adolescents of the early '80s navigate the hormonal waters of puberty. Here are some excerpts and photos as awkward as puberty itself.

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• "All of a sudden I have hair growing where it never grew before and sometimes I get an erection for no reason at all."

  

• "I got a hard-on in the hall for no reason. It happened the other day during math, too. Am I normal? I mean does this ever happen to you?"

  

• "For a second I try to think up a different question, like what do you feed the monekys, or something. But my courage comes back when I open my mouth. 'Does the size of a penis tell you how much of a man a guy is?'"

  

• "When I was talking to Susie in the hall at school I got an erection, and we hadn't even touched. Turns out it's normal."

  

• "Then, after [Tony] made those cracks about masturbation, I looked that up. And it turns out that if you do it or you don't, it's normal."

  

• "Then I had this wet dream, and that was normal, too."

  

• "And now today, Tony is giving me a hard time about penis size making a difference, and it just isn't true."

  

• "I've been learning things. About my body. About the penis."