Jessica Biel Shares She’s Still ‘Finding Her Way Through’ Telling Her Sons About Periods

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“Mama blood?” I remember my toddler asking me one time when he was with me in a public restroom. I was on my period and had to change a pad while trying to prevent my two-and-a-half-year-old from touching anything. “It’s OK, Mommy’s not hurt,” I remember trying to explain, but not really having the words. Luckily, he was immediately distracted by trying to crawl under the door to say hi to someone in the next stall, so I didn’t have to say anything more. But over the years, I’ve wondered about the right time (and how!) to talk about periods with my son, who is now six and-a-half, and his two younger brothers. When I was younger, I was mortified by the idea of periods and still had to hide tampons when checking out at the grocery store — even in college. I want something different for my sons, but where do I even start?

Jessica Biel, author of A Kids Book About Periods and mom of two boys, opens up about how she’s still struggling with this question as well. In an Instagram story Q&A on Thursday, someone asked the Candy star, “How do you talk to your sons about periods?”

Tell the Truth

Biel said she’s “still finding my way through” this conversation with her sons Silas, 8, and Phineas, 3, who she shares with husband Justin Timberlake. She admitted, “I don’t have all the answers, but my way is I just tell them the truth about what’s going on with me. And how I’m feeling, and what’s happening for me, and I try to do it in a way that is giving them truth, in a real, biological, anatomically correct information.”

The 7^th Heaven alum shared that she tries her best to make sure the conversation “isn’t going to feel too overwhelming for them.” Biel went on, “So, I’m taking it slow, but I’m telling them the truth, and I’m not hiding it from them, and I’m telling them the real words, and, you know, giving them the real definitions of these terms and phrases in and around reproductive health that can feel scary and feel uncomfortable to use. And I’m just telling it like it is.”

I love this! I love how Biel is turning the conversation around periods from something that might be embarrassing and shameful to something that is normal, truthful, and real.

A Kids Book About Periods

The book, which debuts May 7, was created in partnership with the nonprofit organization PERIOD. Biel made it to help “normalize” period talk.

“I’ve always felt strongly that we need to normalize the discussion around periods and as a parent, writing this book felt like an organic way to engage kids in the conversation from early on,” Biel told PEOPLE earlier this month.

She’s Nervous Too

Just because she has a plan, though, doesn’t mean Biel is prepared for everything. She shared her feelings on her kids growing up in an interview withEntertainment Tonight in June 2023. “I am devastatingly nervous about it,” she said. “God, I mean, it’s terrifying.”

“What’s going to happen to these kids? What they have to go through with puberty, it’s hard being a kid,” she went on. “I tell my eight-year-old that all the time. I’m like, ‘Dude, it’s hard being eight. I get it.’”

 “And then I’m gonna help him see that it’s hard being 41,” she added. “He’s just looking at me like, ‘What? You don’t matter.’” Biel’s keeping it real, and we love her for it!

Before you go, check out these celebrity mothers who love being boy moms.