Growing Up Around Menstruation

This flow traces Lindy West’s movement from fear and secrecy about menstruation toward ordinary, unashamed management of her body.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

The First Body Rule

Learning What Must Be Removed A Friend’s Comment A friend reacts with disgust to the hair on Lindy’s legs, and Lindy asks her mother for a razor. A routine body change becomes an early lesson in how quickly natural features can be framed as unacceptable. A Mother’s Regret Ingrid wishes she had not shaved her own legs, but Lindy feels she has little choice. The gap between maternal counsel and peer pressure foreshadows her later conflict with expectations of femininity.

Dread of Puberty

Avoiding the Coming Change Fear of Blood Lindy imagines menstruation as painful, messy, and socially dangerous. She resists learning about a reproductive system she expects to embarrass and betray her. A Class That Cannot Cure Anxiety Ingrid takes her to a puberty class, but information does not immediately undo Lindy’s dread. Her avoidance is bound up with a broader fear of growing up and losing childhood safety.

A Private First Period

The Event Without a Clear Memory Confusion Lindy recalls fragments of an unfamiliar beach and bathroom when her period first arrives. Her memory is hazy, matching the avoidance with which she meets the event. Silence at Home She avoids telling Ingrid when supplies run out, leaving her mother to make urgent trips. Secrecy turns a normal bodily function into a recurring private emergency.

The Old Pad Belt

Improvised Protection A Humiliating Substitute When no supplies are available, Lindy goes to school using an old-fashioned menstrual pad belt from the family’s first-aid drawer. The absurd discomfort captures how secrecy can make practical care harder. A Small Message of Recognition She stares at the words “Kotex Understands” and cries. The slogan briefly feels like companionship because the people around her cannot make the subject speakable.

Ordinary Adulthood

Saying the Word Gradual Practice Over time, Lindy moves from pads to tampons and learns to ask friends for supplies without feeling she is dying inside. Familiarity replaces some of the secrecy. A Changed Relationship As an adult, she can send her husband to buy tampons. The shift does not make menstruation pleasant; it makes it ordinary, discussable, and part of a body she claims as her own.

around age eight or nine

before menarche

around age eleven

early adolescence

adulthood