Why do we grow taller?
For grown-ups: the science
We grow taller because special places near the ends of our long bones make new bone.
Long bones lengthen at growth plates, which are cartilage regions near their ends. Growth hormone, thyroid hormone, and later sex hormones stimulate cartilage-cell growth and maturation; the cartilage is gradually replaced by bone, lengthening the bone. After puberty, the plates fuse into solid bone, so height growth ends.
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Transcript
Your shoes can start to feel snug. How does your body make you taller?
Near each end of a long bone is a growing place made of cartilage, a smooth, firm body material. This is where a bone can get longer.
Body signals tell tiny living blocks called cells there to make new cartilage, which slowly becomes bone. Adding bone at the ends lengthens the whole bone.
As you grow toward being an adult, the growing places close and become solid bone. Then the long bones no longer get longer.
So, you grow taller because your long bones add new bone at special growing places near their ends.