When I was in high school, periods were still fairly taboo , and no one really talked about them outside of health class.
Need a tampon? Discreetly pass a note to your friend in class and pray they have something in their backpack. Leakage ruining your day and your pants? Tie that sweater around your waist and pretend it’s a new look you’re trying out.
Thankfully, teens today are much braver than I was in so many different ways, and they’re taking a stand against people who try to make them feel ashamed for something that is totally natural and quite literally beyond their control.
A group of seventh grade girls are staging a protest to get free tampons inside their school’s bathroom.
According to a tweet from a family friend of one of the students, the girls had previously organized to have free hygiene products readily available for anyone at school who might find themselves in need of a tampon without one on hand.
You might be asking yourself, why should a middle school bathroom stock free menstruation products for its students?
Well, I think we can all agree that pink tax is real and those ancient 25 cent school dispensers are never stocked or working properly.
Plus, who honestly ever has change on them anymore?
Not to mention, some people may not be as financially capable of keeping their own supply of hygiene products stocked, and it would definitely help them out to know they can count on their school’s bathroom for supplies.
However, the school’s principal refused to allow the free tampons.
He told the students the school wouldn’t be offering the hygiene products and gave one reason as to why he came to this decision.
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If I were you, I would take a brief moment to really prepare your eyeballs for some serious rolling at his excuse because it’s truly stunning.
According to him, the girls would “abuse the privilege” of having free hygiene products available at school.
It’s unclear what exactly the principal meant by that, but perhaps he’s under the impression that the girls would start using more than one at a time, or would start having their periods more than once a month just because they’re now armed with a never-ending supply.
Again, it’s unclear.
Understandably, the students weren’t happy about their principal’s rejection.
But if you think for a second they were about to go down without a fight, you better think again. Ask any parent of a teenage girl and they’ll tell you they really don’t give up that easily.
Instead, they staged what is being quite appropriately referred to as a “cookie protest.”
To put it simply, these girls got together to bake a delicious batch of cookies expertly fashioned to resemble tampons, which were then delivered to their principal.
Who run the world? Oh right, girls .
There’s been no word yet on the fallout from the poignant pastries, or if the principal has had a change of heart.
But if the cookies weren’t enough to compel him to reconsider his “tampon” stance, then perhaps the response online will be because these cookies have totally gone viral.
Since they were posted on October 29, they’ve amassed over 50,000 likes on Twitter and have been retweeted nearly 10,000 times.
And of course, most people are totally in support of these awesome middle school girls who are out here “baking” a difference.
“I just love today’s kids,” one person tweeted . “When I was that age, we would have never even said tampon out loud.”
Another person added , “Fantastic! These girls have really hit on the perfect balance of activism, peaceful protest, and my favorite, snark!”
Then there are those who are just totally confused by the principal’s reasoning, like the rest of us are.
“Only a dude would think tampons are a privilege,” one person , tweeted, while another said , “Abuse the privilege? Like eating too many hors d oeuvres at a cocktail party?”
Overall, people are praising these young women for their determination and also expert baking skills.
Perhaps saying what we’re all thinking, this person wrote , “Can I get on the mailing list for their next bake sale? This is art.”
h/t: Twitter | @ilyseh