“As a child, I grew up loving to play outside, I was a bit of a tomboy. Slowly, fewer and fewer girls came to play. I still wanted to play, even if it was just with the boys, but my grandmother would drag me inside and tell me that girls shouldn’t be playing outside.
I started to feel isolated just because I had reached puberty. I wasn’t allowed to attend Pooja when I was on my period and it made me upset.

When my period first started, I had no idea what was happening. I didn’t know where the blood was coming from and didn’t feel like I could ask my mother. I asked my friend and she told me about periods, but I still had a lot of questions and didn’t know where to get the answers.

I thought that boys got their periods too! This is why, when the boys started teasing me about my period at school, I didn’t understand how I was different from them. The boys in my community used to ask about my “MC” (menstrual cycle) and I didn’t know what to say. I stopped going to school when I was on my period because I was embarrassed and worried about staining.

My mother gave me a cloth to use while I was on my period. She told me I should wash it and leave it to dry inside because no one should know that I was on my period. After a while, I stated itching and realised that the cloth was becoming dirty and possibly growing bacteria. Around this time, my friends told me about Myna and I went to a Sponsor a Girl session. I learnt about what a period was and found out that pads existed. Since then, I have used pads and am a lot happier because I don’t have to worry about staining. Now, when people ask me questions, I know the answers”