We hope you enjoyed the first week of our inaugural Know Your Cycles Month! We decided to end Menstruation Cycle Week by asking members of our Knours Kommunity to share their first period stories in honor of National Period Day.

For those who are unfamiliar with this important holiday, National Period Day was started by Period, a youth-led non-profit that raises awareness about period poverty and provides menstrual hygiene products to communities in need. The very first National Period Day was celebrated on October 19th, 2019 in the United States and is meant to raise awareness about period poverty and to reduce the stigma surrounding periods. We have asked our Knours Kommunity to share their first period stories and also to reflect on what this moment meant to them.

Alisha R.

I was quite young when I got my first period. I was 10 in fifth grade and I remember being actually embarrassed about trying to sneak to the bathroom in between classes with my pencil case filled with pads. If I could give my younger self any advice, it would be that having your period is a superpower and not something you should be ashamed of. Our bodies go through all this every month, and we still manage to be rockstars - that’s pretty cool!

Sung L. 

"My period came much later than my peers so naturally, I was concerned and self-conscious. I think it's just generally a sensitive time for developing girls but I remember being almost embarrassed that I was one of the only girls who didn't have her period in middle school. So when it finally came, I was extremely vocal about it to make sure I wasn't left out anymore. It really felt like I had gone through a HUGE rite of passage." 

Katherine S.

"Middle school volleyball tryouts. Worst timing of my life and all I remember is that I stuffed a bunch of toilet paper in my underwear and was sooo uncomfortable during the 3+ hours of tryouts. I didn't have emotions of entering into womanhood, I was just angry and frustrated that it had to happen then and there! I made the team though, so I guess there's the happy ending!" 

Ashlee H. 

"Oh gosh it was the most (unnecessarily) dramatic experience of my adolescence. I just remember being half really excited and half really scared and crying to my mom, who also started bawling and cradled me like a baby. We both just sat in the kitchen and cried for what seemed like hours (not even sure why I was crying) and then finally she took me shopping to celebrate!"

Ellen P.

"I oddly KNEW it was going to happen the day that it did. I'm not sure exactly how or why, but I was in the 6th grade and I woke up thinking to myself, TODAY is the day. I literally went to the bathroom every 30 minutes checking to see if I had gotten my period and remember being disappointed every time I didn't. Then finally, it was some time in the afternoon, it happened and I proudly whipped my pantyliner (which my older cousin had given me months prior) out from my bag and strutted home."

Not everyone has the same experience so we feel lucky that we are able to share diverse stories from women of all walks of life. We want to continue celebrating periods and all parts of the 3Ms so we can work towards fighting the stigma surrounding these quintessential parts of womanhood. While most of these stories are anonymous, we hope that women everywhere continue to talk openly about their periods and share what they love about this wonderful journey of womanhood.

Follow us @knoursbeauty to continue learning more about this month and stay tuned for all of the exciting activities we still have planned. We will have a National Period Day highlight so you can learn more about this day! 10% of all sales made this month will be donated to the Period Movement to help fight period poverty.