Thank you all for your wonderful comments and for your commitment to helping empower girls early. If every one of us can help raise an empowered women, we CAN and ARE changing the world.
xoxo
Lissa

Thank you for this wonderfully thoughtful, insightful and educated post. My daughter is very young (7 mons) however I keep promising her that I'll do things with her differently than my mother did! Amen!

My mother raised 8 daughters, I am the oldest and knew nothing of what to expect, I started my period at age 9 and we were at church. I thought something was terribly wrong with me! I vowed to educate my 7 younger sisters. I ordered starter kits from stayfree years ago and made sure they all got birth control when they were old enough.
I educated my daughter, she is 12 and handles it well. I feel that we should be Proud of our bodies and how miraculously they function! Celebrate the rite of passage into womanhood and encourage our girls, sisters, friends and fellow females to celebrate the Pink in us ALL!!!

In fifth grade, all the girls assembled in one of the classrooms to watch "The Movie" and all the boys were sent out to play kickball or something. I remember sitting there feeling absolutely horrifed that something so terrible could ever happen to a person, and I made up my 10 year old mind right then and there that it would NEVER happen to me.

Imagine my shock and horror two years later when I had to ask the boys' gym teacher if I could go back inside to the bathroom. I sat on the bench in the locker room and cried because THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN TO ME!!!! I was mortified and inconsolable.

Thirty years later, I still have an indifferent relationship with my period. It nearly takes me by surprise every month. ("Oh. You again.")

I don't remember my mom talking about it with me, but I may have just blocked it all out. I was in denial, remember! I think it's great that there's a new generation of moms who are open and comfortable in preparing their daughters.

(Why do YOU think it is important to educate young girls on their first period? Leave a comment & be entered to win http://ow.ly/38eye #WUDT)

Why? So that young girls don't think they're dying at age 12 like I did when I first started my period. I really thought I was bleeding to death and kept throwing my panties out in the trash can. It's funny looking back at it but at the time it was really scary.

Thanks for posting this Lissa. I believe it is never too early to talk to your kids about life. I don't understand when people are embarrassed to talk to their preschoolers about periods or whey they try to hide their tampons, pads, etc from them. When you talk to young children they are not embarrassed to ask questions. We've been talking to our kids about periods and all things girly and boyish since they were old enough to talk. I remember playing with condoms when they were around 4th - 5th grade and explaining what they were for. After the little talk we blew up the condom like a balloon and all had a good belly laugh watching the dog chase it around the house.

My kids are now young adults who are very comfortable talking about periods, sex, and all those other kind of things many people shy away from.

Adults love coming to our house for dinner because our dinner table conversations are always very entertaining. Most parents tell us they wish they would have been that open with their kids when they were younger because it makes it so much easier when they are older.

I don't know how you've done it, but you have. I actually feel better about laying here with my 700 kelvin heating pad knowing that these horrid cramps are keeping me from bleeding to death. Seriously, I wish you would have had "the talk" with me when I was a little girl. I had the experience of #1 - "complete shock" when I got my first period. Perhaps that's why I'm still shocked today. every. damn. month. xoxo

Loved your topic and your thoughts, Lissa! I thought I would share my experience, as I have always been so glad my girls (now 17 & 20) had the opportunity to participate.

When I was co-leader of my girls' Girl Scout troops, I was fortunate to inherit our little school's tradition to have a Mother/Daughter potluck during each fall of our girls fourth grade year. Though the GS troop sponsored it, the "program" was in no way affiliated with GSA--it was just something that we did as troop leaders. All fourth grade girls in the school and their mothers were invited. The theme of the dinner was to discuss all things related to the girls' changing/soon to change body. It was viewed by the girls as a rite of passage and they looked forward to it, it eased those moms having difficulty broaching the topic into it, and was a fun event for all. We shared our favorite dish, which mothers/daughters were urged to prepare together, setting the girly/collaborative tone AHEAD of time and easing mothers and daughters into the evening. The agenda was simple, generally the same each year, and again, had no sponsored curriculum. It was just something that had been put together in the years before I arrived and we tweaked each year as needed.

Each year, a nurse very comfortable with girls, the topic at hand, and who loved to help us with this event was our guest speaker. Tables of eight (four mothers/four daughters) were centered with a variety of feminine hygiene products to handle and inspect as well as a clear glass of colored water for dunking tampons for observation & plastic spoon for moistening pads, to see how they actually work. We provided each table with set of questions/steps to guide them through each item with ease. Question and answer time always followed, with the nurse answering questions that had been placed anonymously in a box during dinner or the hands-on portion. We leaders typically added a few that we wanted to make sure were incuded as a way to debunk myths or address common but embarrassing questions. Questions almost always spurred animated discussion on everything from body hair to breasts to periods. Each year, the event concluded with a skit put on by adults, with the mandate that it had to be light and humorous but reflective of real life situations. We sent each mother/daughter home with a "party favor" which included all of the same feminine hygiene items that had been found on the table, to spur more discussion at home.

I am an educator as well as a mom, and I feel a sense of satisfaction from every perspective with that little home-grown "program." For those parents who had not long-since begun the discussion with their daughters, it was helpful. For those daughters with questions or a reluctant parent, it was a godsend. It was rare that a mother did not attend with her daughter. When a girl had no mother to bring, for whatever reason, we worked sensitively and well in advance of the event so that the girl was able to attend with another trusted woman.

I don't if other such programs exist, but I loved that my girls and I were fortunate to have this one!