Tuesday, July 7, 2026 | 2 a.m.
Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al español.
Las Vegas teen Chloe Kim wants young girls to cognize precisely what’s coming arsenic their bodies alteration — truthful she wrote the publication connected it.
Her self-published representation book, “Penny’s First Period,” is aimed astatine simple school-aged girls. It strikes a cautious balance: honorable and straightforward, yet lukewarm and reassuring, walking readers done the carnal and affectional shifts that travel with getting their archetypal period.
Kim, 17, said determination are stigmas associated with periods — that they’re gross, that humor is associated with being injured, that radical conscionable shouldn’t speech astir them.
She wants to alteration the speech for girls.
“It means they’re increasing up,” she said. “It means that their assemblage is changing, and it’s thing that should beryllium celebrated.”
The publication focuses connected 12-year-old Penny, who goes to the bath astatine schoolhouse and finds thing reddish connected her pants. Shocked, frightened, confused and successful tears, she confides successful a pistillate teacher and past her mother. Both calmly and mildly archer her not to worry, and that she volition beryllium OK. The communicative ends with Penny educating her friends and feeling optimistic astir the future.
While the publication is age-appropriate and doesn’t spell heavy into biologic detail, it does see a little glossary. Mostly, the communicative is meant to comfortableness girls and reassure them that puberty is natural, normal, and that they should consciousness empowered and assured arsenic they mature.
Most girls statesman menstruating betwixt the ages of 12 and 13, though the onset tin vary, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Women volition typically menstruate until their 40s oregon 50s.
“Penny’s First Period” is portion of the ngo of the Wellness Box Foundation, a nonprofit that Kim and her older sister Caitlyn started successful 2021 to springiness idiosyncratic hygiene and play products — specified arsenic pads and tampons — to women and girls who can’t spend them.
When radical endure from “period poverty,” they deficiency entree to capable feminine hygiene products and the acquisition and resources to attraction for themselves during their menstrual cycles. It tin origin them to miss school, enactment and different regular activities.
The instauration has fixed retired much than 20,000 kits acknowledgment to donations and grants. Kits for the youngest girls see lone pads.
Learning astir the scope of the occupation drove the Kim sisters to commencement the instauration successful their garage. With their ain savings and donations from household and friends, they sat connected the level and packed bags with supplies.
They took their archetypal acceptable of kits to a structure and a weekly-stay flat complex.
“The much we got out, the much that we saw this contented firsthand. We had women telling america that they were utilizing integrative bags and socks successful spot of due play products. We met a clump of children who didn’t adjacent cognize what a play was,” Kim said.
Kim talks to young radical astir their periods, and they person tons of questions, including immoderate that they should beryllium aged capable to cognize the answers to.
“I cognize that the taxable is precise uncomfortable for girls, truthful it’s hard for a batch of girls to inquire questions oregon privation to adjacent spell inquire a teacher astir the topic, and spell in-depth,” she said. “I deliberation it helps erstwhile I spell retired to speech to them, due to the fact that it’s adjuvant for them to speech to idiosyncratic who’s person to their age.”
Kim said her ain enactment acquisition successful schoolhouse wasn’t poor, but it was surface-level and awkward. Her teacher was an older antheral who didn’t speech astir stigmas, play poorness oregon sex identity, Kim said.
“Nobody wants to speech to a middle-aged antheral astir our assemblage parts,” she said.
“Penny’s First Period” was published successful April. Kim’s aunt, who is simply a pediatrician, reviewed the book. The book’s illustrator, who is Kim’s lifelong champion friend, ran it by her ain mother, who is simply a nurse. Both approved.
Kim has mostly fixed distant copies, placed them successful Little Free Library boxes astir municipality and is successful talks with the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District to get the publication connected room shelves. The publication is disposable connected Amazon for little than $10; proceeds payment the Wellness Box Foundation.
Kim, who is headed into her elder twelvemonth astatine The Meadows School, aspires to be instrumentality schoolhouse and prosecute a vocation successful nationalist argumentation and elected office. She is simply a subordinate of the Nevada Youth Legislature and precocious returned from Washington aft serving arsenic a Senate leafage for Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.
For the adjacent legislative league successful Carson City, she would similar to spot a measure making Nevada enactment acquisition opt-out alternatively of opt-in yet go law. Similar authorities has been introduced and failed to go instrumentality astatine slightest six times implicit the years, astir precocious erstwhile Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed Assembly Bill 205 successful June 2025.
Kim wants to normalize conversations astir menstrual health. Nobody who gets a play should consciousness ashamed of it, unprepared oregon held back, she said.
English (US)·