One of the principles that I’ve really tried to instill in the teen readers of my book Cycle Savvy is something that I’m sure every single woman can relate to at one time or another. We’ve all been there:

The Requisite Humiliation of the Menstrual Accident

One day years ago, I decided that rather than melt into a puddle of utter humiliation when I had yet another accident involving the color red, I would change my attitude — have a paradigm shift, as it were. So from then on, any time I experienced an embarrassing female incident, be it menstrual, sexual, or otherwise, I vowed to welcome it as an opportunity to entertain my friends by regaling them a few days hence. After all, we all know that humiliating incidents make for endless chortles in the retelling. And with that, I’ll leave you with one of my own (cough, choke) experiences that I wrote about in Cycle Savvy:

I had recently attended an evening concert in a beautiful hall in downtown Seattle where everyone was wearing gorgeous outfits. During intermission, I ran to the women’s room to change my panty liner. I was in such a hurry to get back that my used pad slipped out of my hands and landed within a couple inches of the trendy stiletto shoes of the woman in the stall next to me. I was so mortified that I tried to discreetly slide my dainty little hand under the stall to retrieve it. Needless to say, I waited until I heard the click-clacking of her high heels leaving the bathroom before I came out.