See similar booklets on this site.
Read a Personal Products booklet for younger girls from about this time, What a trained nurse wrote to her young sister.
See also How shall I tell my daughter? and Personal Digest and read the whole booklet As One Girl to Another (Kotex, 1940).
See a Kotex ad advertising a Marjorie May booklet.
See many more similar booklets.
See ads for menarche-education booklets: Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (Kotex, 1932), Tampax tampons (1970, with Susan Dey), Personal Products (1955, with Carol Lynley), and German o.b. tampons (lower ad, 1981)
See also the booklets How shall I tell my daughter? (Modess, various dates), and Growing up and liking it (Modess, various dates)
And read Lynn Peril's series about these and similar booklets!
Read the full text of the 1935 Canadian edition of Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday, probably identical to the American edition.
Is this the first Tampax tampon? Go to Early Commercial Tampons
Other early commercial tampons - Main Tampax patent - Ad from 1936 - World War II Tampax sign
More ads for teens (see also introductory page for teenage advertising): Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins and Quest napkin powder, 1948, U.S.A.), Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins and belts, 1949, U.S.A.)Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins, 1953, U.S.A.), Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins and belts, 1964, U.S.A.), Freedom (1990, Germany), Kotex (1992, U.S.A.), Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.), Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.), Saba (1975, Denmark)
See early tampons and a list of tampon on this site - at least the ones I've cataloged.
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
homepageMUM address & What does MUM mean? | e-mail the museum | privacy on this site | who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! | the art of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual) | asbestos | belts | bidets | founder bio | Bly, Nellie | MUM board | books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) | cats | company booklets for girls (mostly) directory | contraception and religion | costumes | menstrual cups | cup usage | dispensers | douches, pain, sprays | essay directory | extraction | facts-of-life booklets for girls | famous women in menstrual hygiene ads | FAQ | founder/director biography | gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux | humor | huts | links | masturbation | media coverage of MUM | menarche booklets for girls and parents | miscellaneous | museum future | Norwegian menstruation exhibit | odor | olor | pad directory | patent medicine | poetry directory | products, current | puberty booklets for girls and parents | religion | Religión y menstruación | your remedies for menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety | science | Seguridad de productos para la menstruación | shame | slapping, menstrual | sponges | synchrony | tampon directory | early tampons | teen ads directory | tour of the former museum (video) | underpants & panties directory | videos, films directory | Words and expressions about menstruation | Would you stop menstruating if you could? | What did women do about menstruation in the past? | washable pads
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

Strictly Feminine, menstruation and puberty booklet for teenage girls (1969, U.S.A., The Personal Products Co., maker of Modess pads)
complete booklet
with a letter from a mother to her daughter's doctor

Apparently one of the most common questions girls and parents asked when about to use tampons was, "Um, how 'bout the hymen?" - in other words, about virginity. People opposed tampons right from the beginning partly because of this and do today, for example in Hispanic cultures, as Tambrands and Procter & Gamble found out in the 1990s when trying to increase tampon use in Mexico (scoll to third item down).

The undated letter below possibly comes from a mother whose daughter was a patient in the Children's Rehabilitation Unit at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City: that organization is stamped on the inside front cover (not shown) of the booklet below. The letter, below, in an undated envelope (not shown) came with the booklet when a Dutchman bought them at auction. The doctor - Leona's title on the envelope is "Dr." - addressed the envelope to the writer of the letter and stamped it PERSONAL. I find it interesting that the writer called the doctor by her first name and signed it "Love." Her daughter could have been in rehabilitation long enough to allow a close relationship to develop.

What happened is just what the maker of the booklet, the Modess menstrual pad and tampon manufacturer, wanted: to have a medical figure give the booklet to a patient rather than deliver the explanation herself. Since at least the 1920s menstrual products companies have used puberty education booklets to promote their products; see an example here from 1928 and many more here.

I think the title seeks to reinforce the idea of femininity - "daintiness" in the words of so many ads - to combat some of the things that many women hate about menstruation.

And see the famous Tampax ad "Are you sure I'll still be a virgin?" from 1990.

I thank the Dutch contributor for the scan of the letter!

Below: The back (at left) and front covers. The 34-page booklet measures 13.5 x 17.5 cm (5.25 x 6.87").
 
Below: A letter the Dutch contributor found in his copy of this booklet. I blacked out the name of the writer. See the pages the doctor recommended.
 

NEXT | covers - 2-5 6-9 10-13 14-17 18-21 22-25 26-29 30-31 Read also What a trained nurse wrote to her young sister.
and
see ads for menarche-education booklets: Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (Kotex, 1932), Tampax tampons (1970, with Susan Dey),
Personal Products (1955, with Carol Lynley), and German o.b. tampons (lower ad, 1981). See similar booklets on this site.


© 2007 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any of the work on this Web site in any manner
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