All About You: The Puberty App

All About You: The Puberty App is designed to teach children and young teenagers about puberty, the human body, and reproduction. Each page is interactive with colourful informative pictures.

• It includes information about the physical changes that happen during puberty, and has an activity to encourage you to think about and navigate new feelings and thoughts that come with puberty (eg, crushes, changing friendships).
• There's a section to help you learn about the reproductive system, which covers both male and female internal and external genitalia. This section names each part of the reproductive system (with basic scientific diagrams), as well as providing basic information about what each part does. There's a game/quiz to test your knowledge, which shows how the sperm meets the egg.
• There's a basic section about periods/the menstrual cycle, which shows a basic diagram on the female reproductive system demonstrating the changes that happen during each stage of the menstrual cycle.
• The last section covers pregnancy, and demonstrates the growth of a baby in a uterus over the 9 months of pregnancy.

For the complete app description go to App Store(external link) or, for a more detailed review, see reviews below.

Clinical review

Reviewer: Emma Riddell, Clinical Pharmacist, Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
Date of review: July 2024
Platform: Apple
Version: 1.2.2
Comments: This app is a good starting point for children/young teens to learn about puberty and the reproductive system. The app store recommends this app for age 12+, but it would be an appropriate learning tool for a younger age group, as puberty often starts before the age of 12. The colourful pictures and interactive pages are targeted towards older children/young teens. While this app discusses reproduction (eg, sperm meeting egg), it doesn’t talk about sexual intercourse. The page about pregnancy is also appropriate for a young audience, it looks at the growth of a baby in the uterus over pregnancy, with images showing growth. I would suggest parents have a look at the app to see if it's appropriate for their child.
The one thing I found hard to navigate about this app, is that most pages have a Q&A section covering common questions in more detail (eg,. “When will I grow a beard?”, “How often will I get my period?”). To access this information, you need to click the question mark button on the bottom right of the page. This isn't immediately obvious unless you're looking for it. This information is more in depth and covers more topics/questions than the main pages, so it's worth reading.
This app states it's designed for iPad, and this is the device I have tested it on. I am not sure whether it will work on an iPhone or not.
Safety concerns: None.
New Zealand relevance: Yes