TW: Menstruation. Stupid Mother Nature
I was 10 I think. I was a the beauty shop, getting my hair pressed. I was wearing my favorite pink sweatsuit. I went to the bathroom and I saw it and my first thought was Damn!
My mom had told me all about it. I was ready. I knew it was gonna happen, but I was pissed none the less.
I don’t think I told her about it at first. But when she did find out, probably the next day, she was confused. She asked me why I didn’t tell her. I lied and said I didn’t know what it was. I don’t know why I lied.
Amazingly she didn’t call me on my bullshit. She knew she had told me about it a hundred times. She simply took me to the store and bought me some pads. And when I complained about their hugeness, she told me about having periods in 1963 and how the pads had their very on harness system and how much that sucked. I stopped complaining.
She also told me her story, about being sent home from school when she was about my age and telling my great-grandmother who lived with my mom and my Granny. My great-granny did the only thing that made sense to her, considering her period years were long gone. She got a towel and some safety pins and fashioned a diaper for my mom until my Granny got home from work.
We laughed and laughed at that and my mom reminded me how lucky I was.
submitted by: abowlofbranflakes
11:46 am • 2 August 2011
robynsucre-deactivated20120206 asked: Hey! This blog sounds brilliant and I cannot wait for the submissions to fly in. If one young girl is able to see it's normal and not something to fear this blog will have achieved so much :)
I just have one question though; are trigger warnings obligatory? My first period wasn't anything traumatic or nasty so I really can't think of what to put as a trigger.
Hey! Thanks so much, we agree periods shouldn’t something looked down upon and people who have their first period should feel comfortable knowing it’s natural.
Trigger warnings are obligatory, even if it’s nothing bloody or gruesome because some people might have had a horrible first period experience and your story might trigger them. Just a precaution!
11:42 am • 2 August 2011 • 1 note
[TW for menstrual periods, embarrassment, slight uneasiness] Single dads and best friends FOR THE WIN
The first time I got my period, I was in eighth grade. There was nothing particularly exciting going on that day, except that it was a weekend. I remember going to the bathroom to pee, and pulled down my undies. I freaked out when I saw brownish-copper stains, thinking about how angry my mom would be at the fact that I’d ruined a perfect pair of underwear. Stealthily (at least I thought I was being stealthy), I hid the stained panties, not wanting to get rid of them since I didn’t have many other pairs. The copper stains kept appearing, and I had no idea what to do. I mean, I knew what menstrual periods were, and that I would get one eventually (Thank you, mum and gran), but I didn’t know that it would look brown when the bleeding started. This continued for three days, and I started freaking out. My dad was more awkward around this sort of stuff than I was, so I called my friend Cynthia (she lived four houses down and was a year older than me). She told me that it was normal, and that I was starting my period. So she walked down the street to my house, pads in hand, and while handing me the pads through a small crack in the door, she told me “now, put one of these on like your mom showed you before,” my mom had thought that I would start my period in fourth grade, because both she and my gran were early bloomers, “and remember to drink WAY more water in the next week. Welcome to womanhood."
So yeah, not very eventful, but there it was.
submitted by: rikibatista
11:14 am • 2 August 2011
TRIGGER WARNING: Menstruation, blood, other bodily functions, body size, depression
I was 12 years old and I still remember the date, April 16th, three days after my first concert. I was at my best friend’s house up the street scooter-ing and telling her about the concert, as we shared the same favorite band. I started feeling crampy in my lower abdomen, and honestly I thought I was going to have the worst diarrhea of my life (oh my) and after a few minutes I told her I felt sick (I did, I started feeling feverish), so I went on home. I sat on the toilet when I got there and was horrified at the large brown stain in my underwear (I honestly thought I crapped myself), so I finished going to the bathroom, (and having not crapped), I wiped and saw blood and finally understood what happened. I luckily learned what a period was around seven years of age, which I think was great parenting from my mom. I called my mom into the bathroom, since I couldn’t really get up to do anything, so she got me some supplies (pads) and some clean undies. I used pads for a year and despised them (wet and nasty) and therefore my period to an extent (the day I found tampons, yessss, and moreso, the diva cup, hallelujah). I was also very skinny so my period was light and not too painful (but as time went on, I got heavier and it got worse, sigh) But I had mixed emotions getting my first period… I was (am) genderqueer and knew it at the time (not the phrase, just the feeling), and I had no interest in becoming more womanly (like some friends who got their period felt), it was just a nuisance. But being depressed back then, my period made me feel euphoric (and irritable if pushed), so I enjoyed the break from mental hell. This pattern continues. But overall, my period isn’t too bad. Sometimes it sucks when I’m in more masculine mode, sometimes it makes me too upbeat and erratic, sometimes it hurts a lot, but I appreciate my period because having a vag rules. I also have done menstrual art, aww yeah.
Well, that went off track.
Overall, I’d say that first period was a pretty lucky day and place to get my period, and it wasn’t a really bad experience. It just was. It’s just life.
submitted by: z00110100
12:02 am • 2 August 2011 • 2 notes
[trigger warning: blood] Mazel Tov
I think my first period was in January of 2006 when I was 12, but nobody had told me my first period wasn’t going to be red. So I looked in my panties, foolishly assumed I had missed a spot and went on my way.
Then it was April of the same year. After a wonderful Passover seder I went to the bathroom and found my new red surprise. I called my mom into the bathroom so she could tell me what to do, and that was that. Later that week, my mom organized a little lunch with the other ladies in my family to celebrate my “rite of passage.”
… I only just now realized that it’s actually a bit symbolic that my first bleeding was on Passover night. What with the lamb’s blood-painted-door supposed to symbolize who will be passed over and who will be saved and blahblahblah I’m a silly Jewish girl who got her period. Cool beans.
5 years later, I must admit I’d rather get gelt than my period.
submitted by: yourweaponisguilt
12:00 am • 2 August 2011 • 1 note
My First Period: Sports Day
Trigger warning: blood, pain, embarrassment
I was at summer camp the summer before 7th grade. My mom (who was also my doctor) had sworn to me that I would definitely NOT get my period before school started. It was overnight camp for two months, and on the 4th of July there is always a “sports day.” That morning I woke up really early- around 5am which was really strange, because I generally like to sleep in. I decided to write a letter to my best friend at the time, and halfway through the letter, I realized that I really had to pee. I went to the bathroom, and when I stood up, there was blood in the toilet. I stuffed some toilet paper into my panties, flushed, washed my hands, and then went back and finished my letter.
When my friend who also had her period woke up about an hour later, I told her and she let me use some of her pads. It was really light and only lasted a few days, with no cramping. However, I was allowed to skip a bunch of the sports which was great because I’m not very athletic, and I got to call my mom to tell her, because getting your period was one of the three reasons you were allowed to call home (birthdays and major trouble were the other two). On visiting day- parents can visit on one sunday between month one and month two- my mom brought me two HUGE packages of pads. It was pretty humiliating.
Since then things have only gotten worse. I bled through my shorts once at the zoo, and another time I bled through my friends sheets. My periods were about 14 days long and really painful. My mom finally let me go on birth control pills when I was 16. Now I have 5 day periods with relatively little pain.
submitted by: corpsazorsomething
11:59 pm • 1 August 2011
TW: Menstruation
My first period happened when I had just turned 10. Nobody had taught me anything about menstruation; I literally knew nothing about it. I was taking this tae-kwon-do class that was in the cafeteria after school and I felt like something was moving around and exploding in my stomach, if that even makes sense! When I got home, I noticed blood in my undies. I thought something really bad was happening, and I was too afraid to tell anyone, so I didn’t. I just let myself bleed. I may have stuffed some toilet paper in my undies, but I can’t remember. I had to go swimming in gym class the next day, and I was horrified. Afterwards, I had blood in my swimsuit. I was afraid someone had noticed, but nobody said anything. I remember going to a friend’s house and watching a movie or something and being afraid I was going to bleed on his couch.
A couple days after I’d started bleeding, my mom came into school during lunch. She said she had gone to do my laundry and noticed blood in my underwear, so she brought me a pad, took me to the bathroom, and explained things briefly. Apparently, she had run into my teacher in the hallway and told her about me, so I was completely embarrassed! And I was wearing this huge pad and I had on leggings because that’s all you can wear when you’re a fat 10-year-old. I was afraid people would see the outline of my pad through the leggings.
I think my mom explained things better when I got home from school, and I remember her buying me a couple of those “What’s Happening to my Body?” type of books. I went back to my friend’s house a few days later and he said something about how his mom wasn’t feeling good because she was on her period, and I was thinking, “WHAT. How does he know about periods and I didn’t?” It really blew my mind. Children really should be taught about their bodies at an earlier age. I’m sure so many of us would have benefited from knowing about menstruation at, like, 6 or 7 years old. We need to know what periods are, so that we aren’t completely terrified when we get them.
submitted by: amoebapudding
10:10 pm • 1 August 2011
tw: menstruation/my first period
I got my first period when I was ten years old! It was the summer before going into sixth grade, in late July or early August. I saw spotting on my underwear when I went to the bathroom earlier, but I ignored it. A few hours later, I couldn’t ignore it any longer. I was really worried about bringing it up to my mom, so instead, I secretly went outside and called my best friend and told her about it! She said that I should tell my mom, which I did when I went inside and my mom was questioning why I went outside at 9 o'clock. I used the pads we got in school when learning about periods for a day or two and then my mom went out and bought me stuff of my own!
Side note, I bought my first diva cup 7 years later and I love it <3
submitted by: carlynondrunkenberg
9:57 pm • 1 August 2011