Also, don’t forget, this is one place where you truly can’t blame the manufacturer for creating a problem so they can provide the solution. It’s not like Kotex found a way to make girls start their period earlier because they had this product ready to go. And since there’s really nothing wrong with trying to get young girls to buy their product over someone else’s, I guess, I don’t see a problem.
And now that I’m clicking on the link, I have to say, and maybe this is because I’m a father, but that thing looks like a diaper (as far as the artwork on the pad itself).
IIRC, Kotex has done something similar FOR YEARS. I remember when I first started my periods… over… erm… 15 years ago, and I had to wear the Kotex Teen packages because they were slightly smaller. I didn’t like them much, and changed to Always with wings as soon as I could.
These, though, are definitely an improvement. My memories of the Kotex Teen was that it was a very thick pad, which was the norm then although some brands were starting to come with the thinner versions, and without wings. The wings part I hated, because, for me at least, if it doesn’t have wings the middle part ends up being scrunched and the pad is then useless.
I still see no sense in design for something that will get covered with blood, tissues, and other fluids.
You have the option of having a party in your pants, if you like fashion prints in your reusable menstrual pads. I’ve never actually used them, but they are intriguing.
I thought I’d find them annoying, but I don’t. Nice to have them in the right size for smaller girls. Now, if they came in superhero designs, that’d be cooler.
I actually find that kind of an inspiring costume. Inspriing in if I was planning an adult Halloween party I might be tempted to copy it if only because for so many men I know a pad or tampon, a very common fact of life for most women, is considerably more frightening than Freddie Kruegar and Hannibal Lechtor combined.
I noticed I had a small spot of blood in my underwear when I was changing for ballet class. I went into my mother’s room and told her I thought I had started my period (I was 11, btw), and showed her my underwear. She agreed, but because she was so unprepared for it to have happened so early, all she had on hand to give me was a maxipad with loooooong ends and a belt that the ends hooked onto. I had to wear this to ballet class under my leotard and tights. You bet your sweet bippy I’d have been thrilled with anything skinny and sticky, never mind how it was decorated. Nothing says my mom would have had them on hand, though.
The moral of the story is; parents with young girls, go buy a box of these and put them on a shelf so you’re ready when it happens!
Hey I thought it was no big deal, honestly. I was more annoyed because I don’t have the requisite plumbing to make a knowledgeable purchasing decision, so I bought them with the same mindset I use with underwear and socks; buy the cheapest ones available.
Generic period products are not cost-conscious, anyway. The few dollars more to buy the good stuff is made up for in the cost of the clothing you don’t ruin when the generics inevitably fail.
And if there’s glitter, all the better! Now that’s how you have a happy period, Always people!
Actually, the generic (store) brands knock-offs of Always thin with wings are usually as good as the original. Not all the time (always? heh), but usually they are. It may be that that product has been out for so long that both generic and brand are now similar.
When I got my period I was almost 14 and approaching average height for a woman, but my hips were still best fit by a size 10 in girls. You can bet I would have liked something designed for my body. My mom got me the smallest pads she could find and they were still very awkward for me to manage.
It’s worth noting that worldwide average age of menarche is 11.5 years, but here in the USA it is 12.5 years. Currently, less than 10% of US girls start their period before they are 11 years old. Girls these days have more body fat and the average age of puberty has skewed a little earlier. Only about 6 months earlier than it was in the 70s, though. There is no epidemic of menstruating 8-year-olds, in case anyone was wondering.
