October 8, 2024

By Angelina Chapin

Photo-Illustration: the Cut; Photo: Getty

It was only 10:30 a.m., and Emma had already bled through her pad while at school. “I literally hate my life so much,” she texted her mom. “There is somehow blood on my seat and I Don’t know how to clean it up without anyone seeing im gonna cry.” Adding to Emma’s panic was the fact that she didn’t have any extra pads nearby, since students at her suburban Tennessee middle school aren’t allowed to bring backpacks in the classroom. The 13-year-old asked to go to the bathroom, but the school doesn’t provide menstrual products there and she had none in her locker, either. She didn’t want to let her male teacher know about the situation, so she paced the hallway on the verge of tears while a boy lingered nearby. Then she remembered that a friend kept a stash in her locker, which she left open. Otherwise, “I would have been screwed,” Emma says. “I feel like I’m in the frickin’ wild.”

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Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Getty Images

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A biweekly newsletter interrogating modern family life, written by Kathryn Jezer-Morton.