Description

A collection of essays oral histories and artworks about periods across all stages of life gathered by the editor of the New York Times bestselling anthology My Little Red Book

After hearing a harrowing comingofage story from her great aunt Rachel Kauder Nalebuff started gathering stories about menstruation in her family that had never been told What began as an oral history project quickly snowballed Rachel heard from family and friends and then from strangerswriters experts community leaders activists young people and other visionariesabout the most intimate physical transformations in their lives

Our Red Book takes us through stories of first periods last periods missing periods and everything about bleeding that people wish they had been told Weaving together powerful voicesfrom teenagers midwives Indigenous scholars Olympic athletes incarcerated writers disoriented fathers elected leaders who fought to make period products free friends transitioning genders grandmothers and loversthe book invites us on a collective journey of growth and change with Rachels own voice as a guide

The result is a peoples history of menstruation told through an array of perspectives and identities that span the globe Gathered over twenty years the collection takes stock of our shifting relationships to family cultural inheritance gender aging and liberation