On Writing and Not Writing About Periods | Issue 28

On My Mind | "That's blood in there!" I cried, thinking she was bleeding to death.

Photo by Annika Gordon on Unsplash

My first notion of a period occurred when I was four and I saw blood in the toilet after my mother had been in the bathroom and forgot to flush. Freaked out, I called her over, but she just nonchalantly flushed the toilet and said it was nothing to worry about.

"That's blood in there!" I cried, thinking she was bleeding…