A quiet desk with a journal, tea and warm light — preparing for a first period

First Periods & Growing Up

A two-session school workshop that prepares girls for their first period — calmly, honestly and without embarrassment. Delivered at your school, in English, for girls approaching menarche or in early menstruation.

2 × 75 minutes·Ages 10–14·At your school·In English·Schiedam · Rotterdam · The Hague

Two-session school workshop

  • For girls aged 10–14, approaching menarche or in early menstruation
  • Two sessions of 75 minutes, delivered at your school
  • Groups of 15–25 girls · in English
  • Schiedam · Rotterdam · The Hague + surrounding areas
  • €550 all-inclusive

Why two sessions?

A single lesson can inform. Two sessions can prepare.

In the first session, we explore what a first period is, what changes in the body, and what daily life with a period can look like — practically and honestly.

Between the sessions, there is time to digest. Questions surface at home, in the days afterwards, when a girl isn't sitting in a classroom.

In the second session, we return to those real questions together — the ones that only come up once the first information has settled.

What girls explore

What a period actually is — and what is happening in the body

The cycle beyond the bleeding days

Practicalities: products, being prepared, and handling a period at school

Feelings: curiosity, nervousness, embarrassment and everything in between

Questions girls rarely get to ask out loud

How it works

I come to your school and work with the same group of girls across two sessions, in a format shaped together with the teacher or coordinator.

The atmosphere is calm and matter-of-fact. Nothing is forced to be celebrated, and nothing is treated as shameful.

Positive doesn't mean forcing celebration. Girls are offered an alternative to shame and dread — without anyone prescribing how they ought to feel.

The real questions girls carry

What if it happens at school?

What if I leak?

Can I still swim?

Who do I tell?

When these questions have honest answers, a first period becomes something a girl can meet prepared.

What they take home

A clearer picture of what is coming — and the knowledge that it can be talked about.

Practical confidence: what to do, what to carry, who to ask.

And the beginning of a different story about periods than the one most of us grew up with.

Irida Hysenbelli, founder of Women's Den

About the facilitator

I'm Irida Hysenbelli, founder of Women's Den. I hold workshops and circles for women and girls around the transitions of their lives — including first periods. I trained in Menstruality Leadership with Red School, where I also completed the Menarche Course (2023), and bring a background in education and anthropology. Schools can expect a well-prepared, professional and gentle presence in the classroom.

More about Irida

For parents

Supporting your daughter towards her first period can raise questions at home too. This small guide is for you — for the first conversation, and everything around it.

Growing Up & Periods

Growing Up & Periods

A guide for parents

Coming soon

The First Period Booklet

A small printed booklet for girls approaching their first period is in preparation — something to keep, read slowly and return to.

A first period doesn't need to arrive as something a girl is expected to already know how to handle. We can prepare her.

Prepare her — calmly, honestly, together.

Two-session school workshop · 2 × 75 minutes

For girls aged 10–14, approaching menarche or in early menstruation

Groups of 15–25 girls · delivered at your school · in English

Schiedam · Rotterdam · The Hague + surrounding areas

€550 all-inclusive

A question first? Get in touch