Amy R • Ontario, Canada • 30
On a Friday night, I had what I thought was a stomachache and constipation and I spent the evening on the toilet. I was 12 and a half and I had been waiting for my first period for about a year (I was excited to become a woman), but I didn’t expect to feel anything the night before the event.
The next morning, I noticed some dark brown/slight red in my underwear. I convinced myself that it was my butt and I was having some residual “stomachache after-effects”, so I changed my underwear and went about with my morning.
About an hour later, I knew for sure. I suddenly felt mature and self-conscious all at once. I used a “teen pad” I had saved from a Girls Gift, and it took me all day to work up the courage to tell my mom. She was very sweet, hugged me and told me “you’re a woman now!”, which blindingly embarrassed me, but it remains with me now as a lovely moment in a time where I was a complete and total moody and misunderstood preteen.
