MovieChat Forums > My Girl (1991) Discussion > I have a question for all the female use...

I have a question for all the female users on this site


When you had your first period, did you act supprised and ran around the house to look for a parental figure and explain what happen in the bathroom...or do girls around Vada's age knew in advance about this and when it finally happens, you are like "Eh, it's no big deal. Where are my tampons"

Apparently Vada didn't had a woman to look up to for situations like this because her mother died. I'd say that all mothers know when it is the right time to have "That talk" for her daughter to learn the facts of life and what happens when you start going into puberty

in the movie, Vada panics was too exaggerating

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Not by much because some girls DID freak out thinking they were dying. And in the novelization, it explains WHY Vada's so freaked out, because she HAS heard of periods, but she thinks she's bleeding too much for it and that her cancer's spread.

Me, I was 9, I never heard word ONE about periods, and I had a mother, she didn't find out for 2 days until she did the laundry, and then she explained it to me, but until she did I didn't have any idea what was going on, and I really didn't pay it any mind either.

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I had heard about it growing up but I got mine at seventeen and that was after I was diagnosed with Turner's Syndrome and given pills to regulate. And for the record, it's not normal to get it that late. It's part of Turner's.

Truck or Squad. What side are you on?

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Apparently it used to, in the 40s Disney did a cartoon short on the Story of Menstruation, and for that time they said the girls would get it between the ages of 13 and 17, very strange given 12 was always the norm from then on out, and now it's more like 9.

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Lol nine is NOT the new "normal" age for girls to get their period
According to Princeton University study, the average age that a girl begins her period is 12.75 years
Not much has changed all these years later...

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erm.... I had third graders starting. and they were not held back a year.

it might be earlier depending on wherever you live/the type of environment it is. in the south Bronx for example we have the 9 year olds starting.

Oh God. Fortune vomits on my eiderdown once more.

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So ironic, I have Turners, too, and had mine at 16 (with the help of hormone replacement therapy)

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Alisonparkerhanson: So ironic, I have Turners, too, and had mine at 16 (with the help of hormone replacement therapy)


Really Alison? Did you know anything about it before you were diagnosed? I didn't. I had never even heard of it. And then later on, whenever I went to a new doctor, My mom and I had to explain it to them, which got real old, real fast. It wasn't until I moved to where I currently live that a doctor even knew what Turner's. was.

Truck or Squad. What side are you on?

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you aslo have remeber vada had no mother to tell her about these things. Her Grandma Proably did not tell here either,

Mr. Shue, let me be your Britney

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Back then we didn't have the Internet to tell us these things, and they didn't advertise feminine hygeine products on TV. My mother gave me a confusing explanation about it when I was 9 that made no sense. Then in the 5th and 6th grades, the boys left the classroom and we watched confusing films about the subject. I made sure to explain it clearly to my daughter. Some people (like my mother) are just so uncomfortable talking about this they do a terrible job explaining it.

There are probably still girls who don't understand or even know about the process because they have only a dad or a prudish mother.

Does anyone know if they still show the films in school? Back then we didn't need parental approval to watch them, but I suspect they do now.

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Also, Vada is overly dramatic about a lot of different aspects of her life. So her freaking out in the way she did is very much in character.

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I started on Christmas eve when I was 7. I am now 24. My mom told me all about it when I was probably 6 because she also started at 7. I was excited and she freaked. My mom on the other hand started at a family reunion where she had no prior knowledge of a period so she thought she was dying. My aunt had to give her the talk.

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7? Wow you poor thing, you must have been terrified.

I had just turned 14 when I started mine and it wasnt really a big deal then because I was kind of late in comparison to a lot of other girls, I had been expecting it for ages, so when it came I just told my mum and that was it really.

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Plot hole: For someone who spent so much time going to the doctor and learning about all the possible medical conditions she could have, how could Vada be totally unaware of menstruation?

I'm just a year or so younger than Vada would be, and although my mother never
gave me any kind of "talk," she didn't really have to, since by the early 1970s,
our school was willing and eager to give special health class sessions to the girls (while the boys were sent outside to play kickball) which focused on the wonderful, magical miracle that was about to happen to us. We watched movies in
which teenage girls discussed how much fun it was to menstruate, while their boyfriends hugged them and marveled, almost enviously, at how their girlfriends were experiencing this beautiful event. We 10-year-old girls knew enough to be a little puzzled
by that: "Wait, those girls aren't a little bit embarrassed to tell their boyfriends that they're having their...um...periods?!" one girl wondered out loud. She was quickly shushed by the teacher: "Of course not! It's nothing embarrassing.
It's a BEAUTIFUL THING!!" We were given bright, pastel-colored pamphlets entitled
"Growing Up and Liking It," which consisted of an epistolary story of three pubescent girls who were pen pals and wrote about all the fun things that were
going on in their lives--mostly about getting their first periods and all the fun
sanitary accessories they could now buy, use, and carry around to show off to their friends.

After being sold on this wonderful thing that was going to happen, why would we afraid when it actually happened? We all couldn't wait for it to start. When it finally did for me, when I was 13, I was more impressed than anything else.
I just shyly bragged to my mother about it, and that was it.

It took me about three more months of experiencing this magical event, however, to realize that I'd been had. Currently, I'm only experiencing the
magic about two or three times a year, and I'm anticipating the day when there's
no more magic. I still have the "Growing Up and Liking It" pamphlet, though. I'm
thinking about writing a sequel: "Growing Old and Good Riddance."




I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!

Hewwo.

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Life is a miracle. YOUR life! The period is just the period.

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At least she had it better than CARRIE. In high school and all the other girls making fun of her because she didn't know what was happening to her :/ ..... "Why didn't you tell me mamma?"

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My parents bought me books when I was several years younger to explain all this, also, my mother was still living, so no.

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