When Rachel Kauder Nalebuff had her first period, it was broadcast to her wider family, to her intense shame. Sharing the experience unearthed a treasure chest of stories, which became her new anthology, Our Red Book
At a family Passover seder in Queens, I was sitting at the kids’ table, like every other year of my life beforehand. Clinking her glass, my mother announced to my extended family that I had “become a woman”.
Looking back on it, I understand this moment and the day of my first period as my first of many encounters with shame.
