The Strange Change

Jodie •  Liverpool, UK •  26

Strange because I remember the day of my first period like it was yesterday... The third day into summer holiday, I’d just finished YEAR 5! Just a week before turning 10, I had grown taller than all of my classmates. My hair was always greasy, as well as my skin breaking out! My mum kept asking me if I was okay and to let me know if anything changes whilst going to the toilet. We had been “educated” for 10 mins on a PowerPoint about it and it got made into such a big deal in school. All the girls were taken into a different classroom than the boys, which at the time, I thought was normal because why would they need to know? How I was wrong!

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Anyway, taking it to the “big day.” I woke up feeling like I had a cold. I was achy & a bit snuffly. I walked to the toilet, not fully awake yet, and was greeted by “the change in the toilet.” RED. Just RED! I panicked at first and ran back to my bedroom. Then about 10 minutes later, I shouted my mum to the toilet and said, “what is this?” She took one look and said, “oh love, you’re a woman now.”

The days after became almost a parade of period shame. My family was telling everyone in my presence, “oh she’s joined the woman club now.” So embarrassing then, but I have young boys now and I will make sure they are aware, educated, and taught to respect menstruators as a whole, regardless of the mood swings that come with it. Ha! 

Periods are our power. They make us the strong being we are.

Not-So Near Death Experience

Katie •  Essex, UK •  23

From the minute we got to secondary school, the girls had this thing about "if you don't get your period by 13 it means you're going to die" or something like that. All of my friends had gotten theirs in primary school or during the first two years of secondary.

On my 13th birthday, we were waiting for my dad to get home to take me to Currys to pick out my first iPod with my birthday money when I just knew I needed to use the loo. I sat down and there it was and I was pretty unfazed by it all.

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I was also excited because my mum had always told me (due to how panicked I was about the no period/death thing) that the day I got it, I'd be allowed the next day off of school. She didn't realise I'd remembered this, so I ran downstairs to tell her my news, grabbed my first pad, and planned my next day off playing with my new iPod. All in all, a wonderful birthday.

Elated to Devastated

Charlotte •  Essex, UK •  28

I was 9 years old and on my first abroad holiday with my family and close family friends. I'd been experiencing a few stomach pains throughout the morning but thought nothing of it.

Around midday, we decided to go take a swim in the ocean– something I'd been looking forward to all afternoon. I remember running at the water when I felt a strange warm dampness between my legs.

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I was so confused and told my older sister I thought I'd wet myself. She took me into the public toilet and low and behold, I'd started my period! It felt  scary, new and DEVASTATING, as I was too scared to use a tampon, therefore couldn't swim for the remaining week of the holiday. Not what I had planned at all!

I was so young and felt so embarrassed and ashamed that this was happening to me– a feeling I would never want a young person to have to go through! Let's break the stigma around periods!