i recently spoke with niharika bedekar by skype from india where she was traveling following her graduationratoga high school. >> thanks so much for being with us today. >> thank you for having me. >> you had a good experience with puberty. and then you decided to do something to help other people. so first tell me about your puberty situation, how old you were and what happened. >> i was actually 9 when i got my first period. and even though i wasn't precocious, i did mature a lot earlier than any of my peers. and i was the one in the locker room who was a little awkward, a lot more mature than everyone else. but back then i had a really great support group. so it didn't even faze me. it was just another part of my life. >> what did you decide to do as a result of that good experience? >> when i got into high school and as i got older i started realizing that early puberty can actually have a lot of negative consequences. and so when i got into high school i wanted to just show other girls that like no matter when you start, even if you're a little earlier in your period you're very normal