Where your voice comes from
Your voice box, or larynx, sits in the front of your neck, at the top of your windpipe. It's made of cartilage, the same bendy material that's in your ears and nose.
Inside are two vocal cords. They aren't really cords or strings. They are two soft, stretchy flaps that reach across the voice box, like a curtain with a gap in the middle.
When you breathe, the vocal cords open wide so air can pass. When you talk, they come together, and air pushing up from your lungs makes them buzz. That buzz is the start of your voice.
Try it: rest your fingers gently on the front of your throat and hum. Feel the buzz? Now whisper. The buzz goes away, because your vocal cords don't buzz when you whisper.
High sounds and low sounds
Your vocal cords work a bit like a rubber band. Stretch a rubber band tight and pluck it, and it makes a high sound. Let it go looser and it makes a lower sound.
Tiny muscles in your voice box stretch your vocal cords tight for high notes and loosen them for low notes. They can buzz hundreds of times every second!
Bigger vocal cords make lower sounds. That's why grown-ups usually have lower voices than little kids, and why your voice changes as you grow.
Your voice box makes the buzz, but your throat, mouth and nose make it sound like you. Your tongue, teeth and lips shape the buzz into words.
The Adam's apple
Touch the front of your neck. You might feel a bump. That's part of your voice box, and the bump is often called the Adam's apple.
It isn't an apple and it isn't a bone. It's a piece of cartilage that protects your vocal cords, like a shield.
Everyone has a larynx with this shield. In some people the bump sticks out more, and in others it's hard to see. Both are normal.
A guard for your windpipe
Your voice box has another big job: it helps keep food out of your lungs.
When you swallow, your voice box moves up and a little flap called the epiglottis (ep-ih-GLOT-is) folds down over it. Food slides past, into your food pipe.
Try it: rest your fingers on your throat and swallow. Feel your voice box bob up? That's it closing the door.
If a crumb slips the wrong way anyway, your voice box helps you cough it back out.