While we stand by our statement that GladRags are economical and money-saving, we know some people like to keep their purchasing and consuming as local as they can.  One way to reduce your environmental footprint to make your own menstrual pads.  Treehugger has a great article that includes links to sewing patterns for menstrual pads along with suggestions on how to be an effective menstrual activist.  Making your own pads can be especially eco-friendly if you use old towels or other discarded fabric – in fact, the prototype for GladRags was made with one of my old towels. And it worked great – I used it for years.

But of course we think you should spend your crafty skills on some making fun clothes and hats and just buy your GladRags from us!

Welcome to the first Menstrual Monday of the new year!  You’ve landed at your one stop shop for menstrual news, art, science, and more.  Now, on to the info.

•  Susan Kim, co-author of Flow: A Cultural History of Mensturation writes a very interesting article on Fairy Tales, Child Development, And Unconscious Learning and how they relate to menstruation.  She includes references to the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, Hitchcock’s Psycho, and the infamous menstrual horror that is Carrie.
• Check out the 10 Craziest Pantyliners found on the internet!  See vampires, puppies, and bugs!
  
• Tampaction, a radical menstrual activist group, brings the Keeper Cup to the University of New Hampshire.  Read about it in the independent student newspaper here: Earth and user friendly menstrual products coming to the MUB.
• Savvy Women’s Magazine tells us how to Celebrate your Cycle in Style with cloth pads like GladRags.
• We love Etsy seller lovealittle’s super cute handmade 3D Moon Cup pouches!

Welcome to the second to last Menstrual Monday of the year and the first official day of winter!  Enjoy this week’s dose of menstruation facts, art, news, and more!

• From Halle Tecco at the Huffington Post, an article about menstrual products in Africa entitled “When Menstruation Means Inequality”

• We found this intro to menstrual cup use through MyFrugalTips on Twitter: Using a menstrual cup instead of tampons: be eco-friendly while saving money

• Did you know that a recent female climber of Mt. Everest brought the DivaCup with her to prevent having to bury or carry out disposables products?  Cool!  We learned this neat fact from Carlin Ross’ interview with the women behind the DivaCup.

• The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research has put out a call for creative works!  They’re looking for poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and menstrual memoirs    for a special issue of their interdisciplinary journal, slated for publication next fall.

• Check out this fascinating article about menstruation in ancient civilizations, snake goddesses, and the “Isis knot” — an early form of tampons used by women suffering from irregular menstruation and to prevent miscarriages!

• Strange but true: you can now (for quite a price!) harvest your own stem cells from your menstrual blood to save for “the future [when] these cells may be the basis of medical treatments for threatening diseases, personalized cosmeceuticals and regenerative medical procedures.”  The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research has more info — plus a funny video courtesy of In Living Color.

• An Ad a Day shares amusing advertisements for “sanitary napkins” as part of its Vintage Friday series.  Aren’t you glad we don’t have to figure out those belts anymore?

• Artist Amy E Fraser has a series of abstract paintings based on the “inner turmoil of the uterus.”  Strange, beautiful, and interesting!

Editor: Rachel Kauder Nalebuff

What it’s all about: Periods! When 18 year old editor Rachel Kauder Nalebuff started asking women she knew about their first periods, she earned the nickname “the period girl” at her East Coast high school.  In My Little Red Book, Rachel has collected the funny, sad, embarrassing, and touching stories of nearly 100 women from all walks of life.

Who contributed: The stories included in the book range from first periods in mid-century China, to modern-day Kenya, to Minnesota in the early ’90s. Some well-known authors also contributed to the book.  You’ll find the stories of Erica Jong, Meg Cabot, Tamora Pierce, Joyce Maynard, as well as an updated version of Gloria Steinem’s famous essay, “If Men Could Menstruate.”

Why you should check it out: My Little Red Book is a quick, fun read that every woman can relate to.  Sometimes you’ll find yourself in the stories but often you’ll discover an entirely different perspective than your own!  Perhaps not surprisingly, the majority of stories included negative feelings like shame, embarrassment, disgust, and loneliness — but one of the few wholly positive stories was about discovering cloth menstrual pads!

Take a look: Maybe you’ll be inspired to share first period stories with your friends — or help make the first period of a young woman in your life a little more positive!  If you do read My Little Red Book, be sure to leave us a comment and let us know what your thoughts are!

My Little Red Book by Rachel Kauder-nalebuff

Hello and welcome to Menstrual Monday, your stop for exciting and interesting menstrual news!

• The Nut Graph has a great article on menstrual taboos and why they exist.  The conversation was started by an event in which a leading Muslim assemplyperson equated non-Muslims stepping into a mosque with menstruating women.  Read more about it and contribute by giving your observations on menstruation in 6 words here.
• Funny or Die hosts a funny video lampooning Twilight called Twilight Cycles.  I have always wondered how vampires would react to menstruating women.  Haven’t you?

Welcome to this week’s installment of menstrual news, art, activism, and more!  Today is another light flow day for us here at GladRags HQ.

• Afri-pads, a nonprofit providing Ugandan school girls with reusable menstrual kits, is listed on the philanthropist site GiveMeaning.com
• The long awaited Flow: The Cultural History of Menstruation (pictured) goes on sale!
• The Frisky shares with us 10 Outrageous Menstrual Facts That’ll Freak You Out from Flow the book– history is weird!
• Another Flow related link: How to Sell a Tampon is an interesting slide show documenting the vague and often shaming history of feminine product advertising from Double X
• Why Men Should Learn to Like Period Sex an opinion piece on Jezebel in the vein of women being humans and not just objects!  Woo!

Here comes your weekly round-up of the latest in menstrual news, art, activism, and more!

• One of our favorite news quiz radio shows to listen to at work, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! from NPR,  had a question in last week’s show about Disney’s The Story of Menstruation for George Romero.  Listen to the segment here.  Quite amusing!
• 1 Girl 2 Wheels 3 Countries 4 Education: Eleanor (pictured) is biking across Asia to raise awareness for two charities (Girls Education International & Stepping Stones) and of course using GladRags pads and her Moon Cup during the trip!  She’s a GladRags Guerilla, are you?
• The community at Feministing.com features “An Ode to the Menstrual Cup” — be sure to read the comments too!
• Mommy blogger Keeper of the Home has a great entry on “Cloth or Disposable – It Applies to More Than Just Diapers“
• The Greenists open up a discussion about menstrual cups and note that men should be a part of it, too!

Hello and welcome to this week’s installment of Menstrual Mondays, wherein we give you the latest in menstrual news, musings, art, and more!

• Adventures in Menstruating is a great, funny blog!  Read their latest on menstruating zombies, the period fairy, and euphemisms.
• Read How Menstruation Created Math by John Kellermeier on Tacoma Community College’s website to learn more about early calenders and how mathematics began.
• Bitch Magazine has a great post on vagina related crafts posted on etsy.com, the ebay-like craft sharing website.  Includes work by our twitter friend, vulvalovelovely, who does some intricate vulva necklaces and a super cute giant plush uterus.  Read A Vagtastic Voyage Through Etsy. Possibly NSFW.
• Are you on twitter and want to learn more about menstruation?  Follow these ladies on GladRags’ new menstrual tweeters list!
• Blogger, Badger Meets World, writes a colorful article about using a menstrual cup during heavy bleeding.
• Fashion Blogger, My Wardrobe Today, writes an article about how great and easy it is to go green with the Diva Cup!
• Bust calls out RedBook for their sorry excuse for a review on FLOW: The Cultural History of Menstruation in this article.

Welcome to Menstrual Monday, the first post in a series of weekly guides to the latest in menstrual news, blog entries, and art!

• The wonderful ladies from the Stuff Mom Never Told You podcast read our email on their latest show!  Listen to “Is Dating Going Extinct?” on itunes or through their website on HowStuffWorks.com.  They will soon do a podcast on alternative menstrual products, so stay tuned!

• Ideablob is a website where you can vote for the clever or important project that most appeals to you in order to fund the idea.  The Huru organization has developed a program to provide reusable pads to girls in developing countries who cannot afford proper menstrual products and often are taken out of school during their period.  Vote for their idea here.

• Ever wanted to host a Menstrual Movie night?  Look no further than MOLT‘s (Museum of the Menovulatory Lifetime) Flofilm Festival guide.  This handy guide includes reviews, interviews, discussion questions, and even opportunities to rent and buy the sometimes hard to find films.

• My Moondays is a beautiful new website developed to encourage the celebration and acceptance of our menstrual cycles.  Check out their resources, connect and share with the community, and get ideas to celebrate your period.

• And last, but certainly not least: we received a delightful little email from Joy, one of our loyal customers, featuring her adorable son, Max Margolis, from Nantucket, MA 9 months old who loves GladRags almost as much as his mom — as a hat!

Do you have a cute or funny GladRags-related photo? Email us at orders@gladrags.com and we’ll share your photo on the blog!

Here at GladRags we love all things sustainable!  This includes bike commuting to work for all of us.  There are more benefits to biking than just sustainable living.  You feel good, spend less money, and get to enjoy the scenery of your town.  And now this!  There was a delightful little add-on to the stimulus bill:  The Bicycle Commuter Tax Provision – a $20 a month tax credit to employees for riding their bike to work!   We GladRags employees love it! See more information here.  The provision was heralded by Portland's very own bike commuting representative Earl Blumenauer.

If you ride to work a substantial amount of days, ask your employer to offer it!

Do you ride your bike to work or around town?  If not, what are your major barriers?  If you do, what do you think is the best part?