Periods can bring unnecessary anxiety for teenagers experiencing their first menstruation. Now, parents have come up with a way to combat this stress – by hosting period parties for their daughters.
Although various cultures have celebrated or marked a woman’s first period – the trend is slowly making its way into the American mainstream.
In August, comedian Bert Kreischer revealed while appearing on Conan that his daughter had recently orchestrated a period party for herself, Huffington Post reported.
According to Kreischer, his daughter informed him that “all the girls are throwing them,” and that the necessary party supplies included red velvet cake and red foods.
Kreischer isn’t the only person to have attended a period party.
In 2017, then-12-year-old Brooke Lee from Jacksonville, Florida went viral after her family threw her a period party complete with pads and tampons, cake, and pizza.
According to her mother, who spoke to BuzzFeed, she decided to hold the party for her daughter because her daughter was “anxious to have her period” and she wanted “to make this event a little more fun.”
At the time, people praised the parenting effort to remove the shame associated with periods, while wishing their own parents had celebrated the occasion for them.
Prior to that, supermodel Tyra Banks discussed her own period party that her mother threw for her at 15 in her book Perfect is Boring.
“It was a celebration of womanhood, and an acknowledgement of passing into another realm,” Banks’ mother Carolyn London wrote in the co-authored chapter.
It was also informative – as according to London, most of the girls in attendance had “never talked about their periods so openly before” and took the opportunity to ask honest questions about menstruation between their “‘yucks and giggles.”
Period-themed parties are also appearing more frequently on Instagram and on Pinterest, where parents can find inspiration for ovary-shaped cupcakes to piñatas.
By celebrating a first period, parents can help ease anxiety surrounding periods – and add some fun to an otherwise unenjoyable event.
