Character thoughts - growing up

Here I have started to roughly visually explore the ideas of growing up by having a character physically growing up as the story goes on. I think this is a good visual metaphor for the ideas of changing and developing I want to express in my picture book.
 I also think I might use a female character, as I don't often use them in my work and I think that the female form is more interesting visually in terms of how it changes and develops noticeably over time, whereas boys sort of stay the same but get bigger, so you can't really tell what stage of development they're at just by looking. 

I want the eyes of my character to hold a significance, as I'm creating a general view of a youth growing up, but not basing it on any one specific person. I think how I choose to portray the eyes is important, as I want the character to be relatable and seem like it could be anyone, because we've all been through what they are going through in this book.