During development, multicellular organisms must become sexually mature in order to reproduce. The developmental timing of this transition is controlled by pulses of steroid hormones, but how these pulses are generated have remained unclear? A recent paper shows that in Drosophila larvae, nucleocytoplasmic trafficking of DHR4, a nuclear receptor, in response to prothoracicotropic hormone signaling, is critical for producing the correct temporal pulses of steroid hormones that coordinate the juvenile-adult transition.