19. I woke up the next morning on my friend’s couch in a pool of blood from my belly button down.
“I was 11 years old. The day before I started my period, my friends and I were talking in the back of our friend’s pickup truck about how we hadn’t gotten ours yet, and then I woke up the next morning on my friend’s couch in a pool of blood from my belly button down. I was freaking out. I went to the bathroom and started bawling my eyes out and told my friend I couldn’t go to school because I had blood all over me. Then I told my friends mom and she gave me a towel to clean the couch with. Super embarrassing.”
—Lynn
20. I freaked out because it sort of looked like poop, but it was in the crotch area.
“I was 10 years old and on a camping trip with my Girl Scout troop—horrible place to get your first period! I freaked out because it sort of looked like poop, but it was in the crotch area, and I told myself that I couldn’t have pooped myself because I would know if I did that. I changed my underwear and hoped it wouldn’t happen again. I had no idea it was my period because it wasn’t red like blood—I didn’t know that it could be brown. I was pretty young at this point, so my mom had never really talked to me about it. Every time I went to the bathroom, more stuff would be in my underwear and I would just have to change because I didn’t bring any pads.”
—Kate
21. I was mortified because she announced it in front of my principal and the office ladies.
“I was 11. I remember that I didn’t know what it was, and I was terrified when my mom told me that I had gotten my period. I was mortified because she announced it in front of my principal and the office ladies.”