At the age of 12, I got my period. I was at home with my older brother and he had just awoken me to get ready for school. I went to use the restroom and after doing so I wiped myself with tissue and it was RED!! I screamed because I didn’t know what it was and my brother ran into the bathroom and he looked into the toilet and started panicking. My mom was at work, so he called and her said “Ma, Shayla got her period what should I do?” She started laughing and said “Go get her a pad out my bathroom.” My mom had those long super absorbency pads and I had to wear one of those to school, plus I had to wear oversized sweatpants and a large shirt so that no one could tell that I was wearing such a large pad. After getting through the day at school, my mom picked me up from school and took me to Walgreens to get my own box of pads. There were so many products. I remember wondering what would work best. I really had no clue, and my mother would not buy tampons.

---Shayla