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!
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.
