What to Know
There are two types of parents when a kid gets their first period: The kind who try to be discreet and just shove a pad at it and keep it hush-hush, and then there are parents like the ones in this viral video. The kind who bake a cake and help their daughter celebrate it in the coolest way.
In the TikTok video, parents surprised their daughter with a cake to celebrate her first period. But this wasn’t played for laughs or embarrassment. There were no cringey jokes, no “welcome to womanhood, it’s all downhill from here” euphemisms. Instead, they told her she was a “champion,” that she handled it with grace, and that they were sending her wishes for good menstrual health.
Good. Menstrual. Health. How modern and honestly kind of beautiful is that? I just remember knowing it would come soon-ish and crying when it did because it happened when I was babysitting and I thought I was sick.
For so many of us, getting our first period came with one main lesson:
Keep it quiet, don’t talk about it if you don’t want to, and wear whatever menstrual accoutrements your mother wears.
It’s not…the best way to help a tween girl thrust in the trenches of sudden womanhood. And because of that kind of attitude, we learned to hide tampons up our sleeves, whisper for help in school bathrooms, and act like a totally normal biological function was a personal flaw we needed to manage quietly and efficiently.
These parents did the opposite.
They made it clear that their daughter’s body isn’t something to be embarrassed about and they normalized this enormous change in her body’s function by reminding her how amazing it is that her body can do what it does.
“Maybe instead of a wish we make it like we’re channeling good menstrual health for Phoenix and whatever she chooses to do with her body…that it’s healthy for a long time,” her dad says in the video right before Phoenix blows out the candle on her fun little period cake.
Her dad being involved in such a subtle but powerful way that isn’t full of him making dad jokes or embarrassing her–wow.
What a lesson for dads everywhere.
“The scene of her standing over the period cake candle, and her shadow looming over her against the wall is so damn symbolic for everything else she will continue to conquer as she gets older,” one commenter says.
“Your body is magical” 😭😭😭😭 thank you,” another one shares.
So many generations of girls were raised on silence and secondhand information from friends who were equally confused. Now we’ve got parents who are saying the words “menstrual health” out loud and handing their kid a slice of cake while doing it. It’s nothing short of awesome.
