Read most of a 1928 Australian edition of Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday. Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (1935) - Facts About Menstruation that every Woman should know (1936) - Marjorie May, introductory page, 1935 main page
Read Lynn Peril's series about these and similar booklets! And see the covers of the booklets How shall I tell my daughter?, Growing up and liking it, and Personal Digest; read the whole booklet As One Girl to Another (Kotex, 1940).
Marjorie May, three booklets, 1935 main page
See a Kotex ad advertising this booklet.
HOMEPAGE
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
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MUM address & What does MUM mean? |
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Who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! |
Art of menstruation |
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Puberty booklets for girls and parents|
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Religión y menstruación |
Your remedies for menstrual discomfort |
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Seguridad de productos para la menstruación |
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Tampon directory |
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Tour of the former museum (video) |
Underpants & panties directory |
Videos, films directory |
Words and expressions about menstruation |
Would you stop menstruating if you could? |
What did women do about menstruation in the past? |
Washable pads |
Read 10 years (1996-2006) of articles and Letters to Your MUM on this site.
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

As One Girl to Another (puberty & menstruation booklet from
Kotex sanitary napkins, 1940, U.S.A.)

You see below the cover for apparently the second major booklet the Cellucotton Products Company (which made Kotex menstrual pads) wrote for girls to explain menstruation.

Readers must have found the first booklet, Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday, extremely stuffy. "As One Girl . . ." reads comfortably and easily, but not slangy like the cartoon ads Kotex would produce soon after for teenagers.

But girls would not read why menstruation happened, as they could in Marjorie May! Maybe Kotex left that to the Walt Disney film, The Story of Menstruation, made in the 1940s, which school girls apparently saw when they received this booklet.

Note in the introduction that girl refers both to a girl and her mother, something felt demeaning today.

And you see only white people here, a phenomenon lasting till almost today in America. Part of the reason may have been money; blacks in general earned less than whites, and probably were more likely to use washable rags than the fairly expensive Kotex. This was towards the end of the Depression.

Girls saw the page numbers and captions to the drawings (which I think are great) written casually with a chisel-point pen; it looks like a felt-tip marker.

Modess pads published a rather gloomier booklet just one year after this one.

The unattractive dot pattern on the drawing results from the printing dot pattern meeting my scanner.

See an ad offering this free booklet! And see a tin of Quest powder (and an ad for it). Kotex, on page 10, recommended sprinkling the powder on pads to stop the odor. (Read what causes the odor of menstruation.) The booklet mentions Fibs tampon, the Kotex tampon, developed in the 1930s, on page 16. Fibs had no applicator, unlike its main competitor, the two-tube Tampax (read and see the first Tampax?).

 

Next page
Go to cover, introduction ("as one girl to another"), page 1 ("lollipops to lipsticks"), 2 ("You're YOURSELF!") and 3 (definition), 4 and 5 (cramps), 6 (use a calendar) and 7, 8 ("you need never feel the least embarrassed.") and 9 ("never give your secret away"), 10 (cleanliness) and 11, 12 and 13 ("boys know all about menstruation." [!]), 14-15 (do's and don't's chart), 16 (tampons) and 17, 18 (how to attach a menstrual pad to a belt) and inside back cover (Kotex calendar 1940-41), back cover

copyright 2007 Harry Finley