My little sister is 8 years old and I’m 18, and the other day, there was an episode of her favorite show, Cindy to the Max on Disney. In that episode, Cindy got her first period and the episode revolves around her fear and embarrassment as she leaked at school. Overall things went well and she learnt that it’s nothing to be ashamed of. My little sister of course, had a lot of questions. My mother didn’t really tell me much about periods, she just gave me a book and when the big day came she told me about cramps and recording my cycle. I never really got ‘the talk’ and heard from friends especially since I went to an all girls school.

So last night, I sat her down and put on a fun little video for her age to get the basics of puberty and periods. I talked to her about cramps and that a period means you are healthy and not pregnant. What I realized with the video though, not once did they mention that the menstrual flow was blood. They kept throwing those two words around but never said what it was. I told her that there are three holes and she was shocked. The pee hole, the poop hole, and the baby hole. Then I explained that the period is actually blood that comes out of the baby hole and it your pad would soak it up. She was shocked to know that it wasn’t like pee, but actual literal blood. She asked me about my first period story and I told her and she asked how old I was when I got my first one (12).

She seems excited for the day it’ll come and her favorite part is that it comes around 2 years after you first grow boobies. She already has a pair of tiny raised bumps on her chest and is very proud of them, but I’m worried that after quarantine when she goes back out to school some of her friends would have grown significantly and started to develop. She’ll be 9 in November. I don’t want her to feel insecure or scared because she’s a stick. Did I do the right thing? Or should I have waited a little longer?