Whispers in the locker room, awkward conversations with family members, and commercials with veiled messages for strange-looking products. We all knew it was coming. Did we feel prepared?
According to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the average American girl will get her first period before her thirteenth birthday[1], with ages as young as eight and nine becoming more and more common.
Only two generations ago, our grandmothers could anticipate this life event arriving while they were applying for their driver’s license, or writing final exams.
As the discussion grows over the causes of premature menarche, the question remains: how do we support young girls and women as their periods begin earlier and earlier?
Be Prepared. Period has come up with a solution to this problem. The answer? The Healthy Hygiene Project. The purpose of this program is to get information and resources to young girls where they spend the majority of their time: in school.
While speaking with teachers and educators, we found that the main road blocks to instructing students about menstruation are funding and materials.
The Healthy Hygiene Project offers three fun and informative experiments in an easy to access PDF file that can be downloaded for free. This conversation starter may be worked into any science curriculum, and is a great topic for environmental sciences, health and biology, as well as social studies.
In addition to the experiments, Be Prepared Period is selling their popular 2-GO Kits at a discounted price to signed-up schools, making them available to students, or as a fabulous fundraising idea.
Health and reproductive education in schools is a hot-button topic, with parents from a multiplicity of social, racial, and spiritual backgrounds divided on what children should be learning in the classroom. The Healthy Hygiene Project seeks to prepare children of every culture with clear and concise information regarding menstrual hygiene, so that when menarche does arrive, they feel prepared. Period.
Visit the Healthy Hygiene Project page (press release found here) for more info, and check out our most recent posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for easy share-ability.
Help us spread the word about #HealthyHygiene today!
Resources:
1. http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1104748/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=1104748