What Is Body Odor?

Body odor is when your skin starts to smell because of tiny helpers inside you called bacteria.

Imagine your skin is like a cookie sheet, and your body is baking something special, sweat! When you get hot or nervous, your body sends out sweat, which lands on your skin. Now, the bacteria that live on your skin are like little chefs who love to eat sweat. They munch on it and, in return, they let out a smell, that’s what makes you smell!

Your body has two kinds of sweat:

• Wet sweat, which is mostly water and salt, not too smelly.
• Smelly sweat, which comes from special glands called apocrine glands. This kind of sweat smells more because it has more stuff in it for the bacteria to eat.

Sometimes your body odor changes depending on what you eat or how much you move. Like when you eat onions, your sweat might smell like onions too! Your skin is always working hard with these tiny chefs, and that’s why we all have our own special body odor.