If Tyra Banks can share with everyone on “The Tyra Show” when she got her first period—during 11th grade, at her dad’s house—so can The Frisky editors. I’ll start!

Mine came the summer after 7th grade on the second morning of sailing lessons at the local country club. (Shut up, I’m a WASP.) One the first day of obnoxiously preppy sailing class, the students had to tread water in the pool for a few minutes to prove that we wouldn’t drown if the boats capsized. But my Blair Waldorf-ian self woke up the morning of the second class with blood in my underwear! Because I’m my mom’s baby, she majorly teared-up over me getting my period—so embarrassing! So I just snatched the pads from her and hissed that I didn’t want to talk about it. Mom had no chance to teach me about tampons and I didn’t ask!

But I spent the next several days of sailing class terrified we’d have to go in the pool again, or my boat would capsize and I’d get wet, and everybody would know I was wearing a big, soggy pad. To this day, that’s pretty much all I remember about sailing lessons! I didn’t use a tampon for the first time until I was 16 (during a performance of “The Vagina Monologues” of all places). Alas, by then, my sailing days were over.

I’m not the only Frisk-ette with a slightly tragic first period story. Our tales of tampons and trauma, after the jump.

As a lady, you know that every month there will be blood. But designer Andy Kurovets wants Aunt Flo to move in with you permanently. Soak in his Hygienic Sanitary Pad Layers Table. If only we could really shelve our periods ... but these will at least help you organize your bloody mess. Perhaps there is no more fitting furniture to store your chick-rock CD collection. Those Sarah McLachlan, Indigo Girls, Ani DiFranco, and Joni Mitchell records would look quite at home lined up on these sanitary napkins.  Now, you gotta see what Andy did with with a tampon, after the jump! [WOW Report via Yanko Design]

Yesterday, as I was flipping through People, I came across an advertisement that scared me to death. What was it marketing? Feminine hygiene products, of course. Because, I mean, what could be scarier than a period?! The Always Infinity ad features a dangerous tornado-like whirlpool swirling ominously into a gigantic maxi pad. A pad that, apparently, has the power to absorb ten times its weight— “so your heavy days won’t spin you out of control.” (If you care to see the full, 3-D, moving visual, check it out here.)