Puberty Blues is a 1981 Australian coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Bruce Beresford, based on the 1979 novel of the same name by Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey.

The girls attempt to create a popular social status by ingratiating themselves with the "Greenhill gang" of surfers, a group of boys with a careless attitude toward casual sex, drugs and alcohol, over the course of one Sydney summer.

Television writer Margaret Kelly was working at a writing workshop at a suburban theatre where she met Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey, who had written a number of unpublished stories about growing up in the surfing beaches of southern Sydney.

Carey and Lette went on to write a column in The Sun-Herald as The Salami Sisters and the stories were published under the title Puberty Blues.

Then Bruce Beresford read the book and wrote asking to direct: I bought it [the novel] while I was waiting for a bus in North Sydney.

It was a sort of insight into the way of life of those kids, which was a revelation to me... Kathy Lette was a real livewire and so was the other girl, Gabrielle Carey.

The movie depicts a culture in which gang rape is incidental, mindless violence is amusing and hard drug use is fatal, but it was unable to address the consequences of the brutal sexual economy in which the girls must exist.

[8] The film also resonated with audiences, particularly teenagers, who found its depiction of surfing culture and adolescent rituals relatable.

This connection contributed to its box office success, with “Puberty Blues” grossing approximately AU$3, 918, 000 million in Australia.

Siemienowicz continued to describe the final scene, where Debbie surfs as "surely one of the finest feminist moments in Australian cinema and guaranteed to bring a surge of rebellious pride to any female heart.

"[10] Rose Capp also wrote about the scene for Melbourne film journal, Senses of Cinema in 2011: "And the two short minutes Beresford takes to establish Debbie’s triumph on the surfboard equally carries a symbolic import that far exceeds its functional weight as narrative denouement.

"[12] In 2021, Greta Parry of The Guardian wrote that the film "offered a sharp rebuttal to the idealised version of the Australian beach – that of an egalitarian paradise – that has long lived in our collective imagination.

"[3] Overall, “Puberty Blues” is regarded as a significant film in Australian cinema, capturing the nuances of teenage life and the surfing scene of its time.

The DVD is compatible with all region codes and includes special features such as the trailer, interviews with Nell Schofield and Bruce Beresford, trivia and biographies.