It was an ordinary day for me as a 12-year-old when I got my first period. I went to the bathroom on a regular Saturday, as you do, and everything felt very standard. That is, until I looked down and saw blood on my liner. My first thought: Wow, it finally happened. My second thought: Well crap; what do I do now?
So there I was sitting on the toilet with this splotch of blood between my legs, and I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do. All I can remember from my mom’s quick glossing over the topic in addition to the very confusing health lessons at school was that at some point, my body was going to start making changes and one of those included bleeding from my vagina, which I was supposed to consider normal.
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After looking down at the red mess that was now going to be a monthly recurrence, I called out for my dad, since my mom wasn’t home. All I could hear was his heavy footsteps bounding down two flights of stairs, and when I cracked open the bathroom door a little, he handed me a pad through the sliver of space.
I had seen my mom use these things a few times before, so I fumbled my way through the process of unwrapping the cottony mass, and then sticking it into the center of my underwear while securing it with the wings that didn’t really look like wings to me. I mean, it didn’t seem like rocket science, and I didn’t think I needed any more explanation, so I just figured things out along the way and now here I am, a self-educated period veteran for about 10 years.
But, with the recent introduction of these amazing things called period starter kits, I realize that I would have been so thankful — and so much more prepared — if my parents had given me the resources instead of the runaround (and that means not just giving me a pad and letting me figure it out for myself).
A period kit makes the idea of having your period a lot less scary or intimidating than everyone makes it out to be. With sex ed classes making it feel like a horribly robotic process represented by cold textbook pages that don’t explain what anything is or how things work and parents being two different edges to a sword, either embarrassingly hyping you up for your “accomplishment” or not saying a thing, a kit like this is the perfect middle ground.
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Not only does it make you excited with all of its goodies — hello, who doesn’t love goodies? — but it gives you really important information in a digestible and relatable way about what’s supposed to happen, how things in your body work, what to use things for and all that stuff you might be too afraid or feel too awkward to ask anyone about.
Another great feature? It doesn’t just give a startup guide for you — aka the one being graciously blessed by the period gods and goddesses — but it also gives a quick guide for parents as well. That immediately takes the pressure off of them to start the conversation.
In this way, HelloFlo has already helped to bridge that gap, and now you can answer and discuss questions together, the way it should be. Here’s a bonus: Pads are expensive AF, so being able to spend money on those and get all the fun extra stuff you need definitely makes it worth the price tag.
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Now, I’m not one to tell you what to do, but I think that everyone could definitely use and benefit from a period starter kit. It literally takes the fear or shame away from having your period, and it makes it something you can look forward to (or dread less) and it gets rid of all the questions surrounding your body.
It’s important to be in tune with your body and to learn how to take care of and adjust to all the changes that come with growing up. With period starter kits that help to debunk scary menstruation myths or mysteries, knowing everything that goes on down there and being prepared while keeping the conversation open is the best way to do that.
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