kacho | NPR: let's talk periods

Marni Sommer was among the first to study the impact on the lives of girls in third-world countries, where she found a lot of girls were disappearing from school right around the age range when puberty starts.

People Are Finally Talking About The Thing Nobody Wants To Talk About

Now, this is a really cool movement. I'm glad this team is addressing this issue and helping girls in developing countries.

Our parents' generation was there: no pads or tampons, no talks about why periods start and how to survive them, no books or internet to find out - taboo is taboo, they didn't expect it to be explained.

My generation, the kids growing in the Soviet union, we laughed at the first TV Tampax ads, not knowing what that blue water was supposed to represent. My mom told me that there were rumors that elite Soviet athletes had been using Tampax for years because obviously they had to compete rain or shine. And that was like "damn, so somewhere on this planet there are dudes who know about Tampax and there are gals who can use them?! Wow!"

Periods are not an easy thing for young teens: it can be very painful and scary and it can literally turn everything upside down, from your ability to think clearly to mood swings and nausea.
So I salute those who are working on that.

And yes, this photo with the boys and girls holding them cute panties in front of them - this rocks!