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One of my favorite aspects of writing about feminism and gender for BlogHer is the ability to speak with incredibly cool women. I interviewed activist Calpernia Addams, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, and now, Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, the editor of My Little Red Book. Last year, I read a hilarious story about how one blogger learned how to use tampons. (Sadly, it is no longer posted.) As I laughed, cringed, and celebrated the author's ultimate triumph (she got the tampon in and won the gymnastic competition! yay!), I thought how great it would be if there was a collection of these types of stories. My Little Red Book fills that important hole, so to speak.
As the book's home page explains:
My Little Red Book is an anthology of stories about first periods, collected from women of all ages from around the world. Whatever a girl experiences or expects, she'll find stories that speak to her thoughts and feelings. My Little Red Book aims to provide support, entertainment, and a starting point for discussion for mothers and daughters everywhere. Royalties from sales of the book are being donated to charities promoting women's health and education. Let the dialog begin!
A book that aims to de-stigmatize menstruation and puts its money where its mouth is by supporting international organizations working to improve the lives of women? Is that not the coolest thing ever? How could I not want to meet the brains behind the operation, who incidentally is doing all this great work at the ripe age of 18 years old? When I called her for a quick phone interview, I was giddy. (So giddy that I forgot to make sure that my recorder actually had functioning batteries, but Rachel patiently waited on the phone as I bumbled around my apartment looking for replacements. Way to go first impressions...)
Suzanne: You started collecting first period stories when you were 13. How did the book project come about?
Rachel: My first period was really a disaster. Between waterskiing and being alone with my widowed grandfather and not wanting to tell anyone, it was just a bad equation all around. When I was too embarrassed to tell, and I ended up alone in an aisle full of incontinent diapers at a store, I realized that I needed to tell someone. So I told my mom; she told everyone in my family, and I thought things would just keep getting worse until my great aunt told me her first period story to comfort me.
Suzanne: She's the person in the book who got her first period while fleeing the Nazis?
Rachel: Exactly. That story put it all into perspective for me. She had never told anyone before she told me. I don't know why 50 years after the event that she felt compelled to tell it, but I'm glad that she did. She died a year ago, actually, so I'm so lucky that I heard it in time. Basically I wanted to tell everyone her story, and I was surprised that she didn't! I was like, well, if you're not going to tell people, I'm going to tell people! She said, OK, you can do that. Every time I told someone, they would tell me their story. So I started collecting oral histories of the women in my family to pass it down to my children. I think it's really empowering to know this hidden history of your family that no one talks about. For me, as a 13 year old, it was really great for me to see the older women in my family. I never really pictured them my age before, and hearing their first period stories really did that for me.
The more stories I heard, the more I wanted every girl to be able to know the stories of her family. In order to do that, we need to make a paradigm shift in the way we view periods. I wanted to make a collection of stories that would shed light on periods and help girls realize that they are not alone, that it's something you can talk about. I was collecting stories on the side, and I had something like 45 stories, half of them from women that I never met, but who referred to me by someone else.
