See similar booklets on this site.
Compare the almost contemporary (2001) Tampax tampon puberty booklet (Tampax Satin Learner's Kit) in English, Spanish and French.
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:
homepage | MUM 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.

Volwassen worden ("Growing up," excerpts), menstruation and puberty booklet for teenage girls, the Netherlands (2004, o.b. tampons)
Cover, Introduction (p. 1)

The booklets American menstrual-products companies published for girls started in the 1920s with the restrained Marjorie May series, using theatrical and upper-middle-class language and behavior, and evolved quickly into the colloquial and relaxed Growing Up and Liking It, (1944). But apart from minor increases in boldness America has held on to its prudery.

Not so the Europeans! In at least two booklets o.b. tampons, which the American company Johnson & Johnson bought in the 1970s, has ventured where no other American company has dared tread. Of course these booklets are not in English but in German and Dutch, sparing the eyes and ears of the Anglo-Saxon cultures.

One of these booklets starts below. By using drawings instead of photos, which the other booklet used, the impact of the explicitness is lessened. Nevertheless I don't believe you'd ever see anything similar in an American publication for kids.

All companies' booklets pitch their products, as does this one on page 43 and elsewhere.

Note the influence of Japanese manga drawings in the eyes of the characters.

The opening sentence, below, calls puberty the most fascinating phase of life. I'd call it the roller coaster phase, and if you find roller coasters fascinating, great.

The booklet measures 4.25 x 5.75" (11 x 14.7 cm) and has 64 pages plus four covers.

And see the famous Tampax ad "Are you sure I'll still be a virgin?" from 1990.
I thank the Dutch contributor, who has donated many valuable items to the museum!

NEXT: cover, introduction, pages 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21, 22-23, 24-25, 26-27,
28-29, 30-31, 38-39, 40-41, 42-43, 44-45, 50-51, 52-53, 62-63 (calendar) & back cover

Compare the almost contemporary (2001) Tampax tampon puberty booklet (Tampax Satin Learner's Kit)
in English, Spanish and French.
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)

© 2006 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any of the work on this Web site in any manner
or medium without written permission of the author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org