Here is my experience:
My transition was long compared to my peers. I was about 14 when I first noticed my voice has started to shift. For almost a year my voice was stuck between childish tone and harsh tone. Throughout that period, I wasn't certain what the product of my voice would be when I was going to talk! Sometimes it was funny and sometimes embarrassing at school. I had to do some practice before any sort of public situation. I'm glad it's over!
Don't remember my voice changing. But those zits...daymn! Could sure wake up with some honkers. Had to put the back of my head against the wall before I popped 'em, other wise I might break my neck! I know, I know...lovely thought, that.
You know what? I never really noticed it.
I assume it must have been a gradual change and didn't cause me any problems at all.
Never felt the change or noticed it... so must had been early... I do recall at age about 14... in a Woolworth store a cashier telling me, "oh my goodness you are a boy with a man's voice". That made my week as I recalled.
My voice change started at a fairly young age, 10. It bothered me the most when I tried to sing. This was especially difficult because I had been in a school choir the year before and had a nice soprano. Then I went from a soprano to a bass in the same musical phrase. It took maybe two years for the change to settle in, but the damage was done by that time. I absolutely refused to even try to sing for years. Only in the last few years have I enjoyed singing again, and I do it well enough that other people don't mind when I do it.....and I'm still a bass.
It's all about that bass, bout that bass, bout that bass.
Yeah, you don't fiddle around with the bass.
This reminds me of when my HS put the Football Team into Choir. They weren't making the needed grade?
We had more Bass then we knew what to do with.
Also can't imagine going through voice change. There might be a slight shift in a women's voice - but it's not going to lead to that wonderful cracking.