The Body Basics & Beyond Story
How Karen O’Dougherty transformed one puberty education curriculum into a movement of educators administering comprehensive body confidence and puberty education across the country
At a faculty meeting early in her teaching career, the principal at Karen’s workplace announced a new puberty education curriculum to meet state requirements. Her colleagues snickered as they handed out the curriculum.
Karen O’Dougherty, Body Basics & Beyond Founder & Educator
Creating the Curriculum
It was clear to Karen that this new curriculum did not meet her teaching style or her students’ needs. She recognized the importance of this education, especially as a mother of three, and she was driven to make it better. She wanted to make it matter. The next morning she was in the principal’s office before she had even hung up her coat.
“I thought I might be hearing from you this morning,” the principal said with a knowing smile.
“I can’t teach this,” Karen shared. “May I try something else?”
She listened to Karen’s concerns and agreed to give Karen two weeks to write her own curriculum. If she did not approve it, Karen would be required to teach the original without complaint.
Every day Karen taught a full course load, and each night she stayed up until 2AM researching and writing her new material. And she was having a blast doing it.
As she researched, she gleaned a lot of factual information but found very little guidance on how to approach actually teaching the material. No existing curriculum went beyond the boys-in-one-room-girls-in-the-other-show-THE-MOVIE-hand-out-deodorant-or-tampons experience. She was disappointed. How could this be?
Here was one of the most relevant, embarrassing, fascinating, and common experience for fifth graders and we were still showing “the movie?”
Karen was feeling discouraged by all these dead ends when she stumbled upon a book called What is Happening to My Body? Book for Girls: A Growing Up Guide for Parents and Daughters in the “Parenting Teens” section of a local bookstore. As she read through it, Karen knew she had found the resource she needed to create my own compelling curriculum.
Karen read the book three times. Written for girls seeking real information, the authors shared the real-life experiences of girls going through puberty. The basic principle of their approach was revolutionary: present facts and emotions with openness and honesty. What a concept!
The authors, Lynda Madaras and her daughter Area, made the information accessible through simple illustrations and explanations, meanwhile giving girls permission to giggle as they learned. Perfect! In the eyes of a fifth grader, this is pretty silly, gross, crazy stuff! Why pretend that it isn’t?
This was the approach Karen wanted to take with her students — put it out there, let them giggle, squirm, fidget, and then giggle some more. And then, teach.
Two days before the deadline, Karen presented her principal with the new curriculum. As Karen stammered a few nervous words, the principal told Karen she would read it and give her an answer soon. Now all she could do was wait.
Four days later, Karen was called to the principal’s office after school.
“You know this isn’t going to be easy, right?” The principal admitted as she sat down across from her desk. That was the last thing Karen thought she’d hear! The principal offered a few minor suggestions and reassured her that she would back her up if needed. They talked about the steps Karen needed to take to get parental approval. Suddenly, she had permission to teach Body Basics to her students!
The First Body Basics Class
“Wait, we’re going to learn about puberty with the boys?” gasped the girls. “Why do we have to learn about…you know…girl stuff?” shuddered the boys.
Karen just smiled.
The first day of Body Basics, it took the class quite a while to settle down. When they were finally ready, Karen passed out a book to each student. Everyone sat wide-eyed, staring at the closed book on their desks with the words “Body Basics” printed on the front cover, relieved that the instructions were to not open it.
She walked up to the blackboard and in big white letters Karen silently wrote the word BREASTS.
The class fell apart. The girls shrieked, the boys turned red with laughter and fell out of their chairs. Karen just stood there, smiling and observing them. Slowly but surely, the group regained some composure. Eventually, much to the relief of the girls, she erased the board and wrote PENIS in equally large letters. Now the boys were mortified. Karen waited patiently until there was only mild squirming and an occasional giggle. Then she collected their books and explained that this was the end of class for the day. It was time to get ready to go home.
They were floored. “That was it?” one girl exclaimed. “Wait, I wanna see the next word!”
“That is all for today,” she replied. They thought she had lost her mind. Teaching had never been this fun!
The next day, the kids took their seats quickly and silently, still eyeing the closed book suspiciously.
Up went the words VAGINA, TESTICLES, PUBIC HAIR, PERIOD, SPERM, one after another for the next three days. Each day, the class erupted. Each day, Karen collected the books and concluded class when the class became calm. By the time she got back around to BREASTS and PENIS a few days later, there were just a few mild snickers.
They were ready.
As she worked her way through the Body Basics lessons plans, boys and girls alike were captivated by the information.
Word problems in math calculated the production of sperm. Their spelling and vocabulary tests consisted of reproductive system language. In writing, they documented their personal journeys from the ovary, through the uterine tube, to the uterus. They interviewed their parents about their own experiences with puberty. Most importantly, they asked everyone a lot of questions.
Maintaining the right to giggle, students adjusted to learning about both boy’s and girl’s bodies, with boys and girls present. As the unit drew to a close, some students were relieved, but most didn’t want it to end.
Body Basics & Beyond: The Business
A few years later, Karen left teaching to focus on her growing family. She missed teaching but my priorities were at home.
One day Karen received a call from a dear friend saying she wanted her next daughter to experience Body Basics. Her first daughter had gone through the school program and she wanted her younger daughter to have the same opportunity.
“What if I get few moms with girls together and you could teach classes in our homes?” she suggested.
Since 1998, Body Basics and Beyond has grown into an independent program offering current puberty and adolescence education, guidance, and support for youth and their families. Karen went on to offer classes, workshops, and retreats for girls grades five through eight, classes for boys in 6th/7th grades and in 8th/9th grades, and room for gender non-conforming students wherever they feel comfortable. Body Basics is now a fixture for all preteens, teens, and their parents within her community.
It has been Karen’s life work to help youth in her community grow up with confidence and a deep understanding of their body and the changes it will go through. She loves working with young people and seeing the difference she makes in both their lives and the lives of their parents.
You can learn more about Karen and her programs here.
The Educator Certification Program: A Movement
While she continues to teach programs in Ashland, OR, in 2021 Karen began to transition from teaching youth to leading educator certification programs in which educators around the country can continue the curriculum she created and has grown over the past twenty-four years.
Karen’s Educator Certification Program is a comprehensive program that not only teaches her curriculum, but it also prepares educators on how to have hard conversations, be a quality educator, develop relationships with parents, launch a small business, and embrace entrepreneurship. Educators enroll in her program from a variety of life paths - lifelong educators, academic researchers, family therapists, public health professionals, and more! They leave the program as adolescence and puberty educators who often lead their own Body Basics and Beyond programs, either alone or integrated into their already-established business.