53 years ago Judy Blume wrote about periods – so how do we feel about them now?

There’s a scene in Judy Blume’s Are you there, God? It’s Me, Margaret, where the 11-year-old protagonist and her friend ‘bravely’ purchase their first sanitary products from a drug store.

Margaret silently hopes that God isn’t judging her – and that her mother won’t find out – as she buys the box of ‘Teenage Softies’. She takes the pads home and hides them in a desk drawer, too afraid to experiment with wearing…