How can colour unlock a wider, more inclusive and honest conversation about periods?
Meet Khrissie:
She’s our Marvellously Mindful Graphic Designer, who brings inspiration, motivation, warmth and shining creativity to any room, virtual or physical, for work or play. From brilliant campaigns and beautifully illustrated pack designs, to journaling workshops and ways of promoting mental health in the studio, you can count on Khrissie to share a wonderful dose of her honesty, humour, empathy and empowering energy.
That time of the month. A universal statement that pretty much anyone – not just those who menstruate – will instantly understand… In their own way.
At its most basic biological level, it’s the hormonal process a woman’s body goes through each month to prepare for a possible pregnancy, with the uterus shedding its lining and causing bleeding from the vagina. But periods are so much more than a bodily function. They come with a whole host of personal, social, cultural, mental and physical implications, from pain to (in)fertility, from stigma and taboo to gender identity, from mystical lunar connections to hygiene, irritation and discomfort.
Many brands from within and beyond the period care space have been creating campaigns, platforms, products and services to finally open the conversation and move it forward. One campaign in particular triggered Khrissie’s interest: Seen+Heard, a collaboration between the Pantone Colour Institute and intimate healthcare brand Intimina. Part of the initiative saw Pantone create a positive and dynamic shade of red to represent periods and use it to build a campaign to create conversations around the menstrual cycle.
Pantone’s ‘Period’ red shade, part of Intimina’s Seen+Heard campaign.
Seen + Heard leverages the power of colour to attract attention to INTIMINA’s mission of supporting the normalisation of periods, getting them seen and heard. To quote Danela Žagar, Intimina’s Global Brand Manager, “Pantone’s ‘Period’ red shade represents exactly what our Seen+Heard campaign is about: making periods visible, encouraging positive conversations and normalising menstruation in our culture, our society and in our everyday lives.”
But there was something about the colour and the idea that felt incomplete to Khrissie:
“I saw and heard them, and it got me thinking. This single, bright and energizing shade of red is great for calling attention to a topic that is not talked about enough. But does it feel real and inclusive enough?
I’m passionate about representing diversity and creating a real conversation around periods. And I believe that always keeping things positive doesn’t necessarily help the conversation. Those difficult but also more meaningful and helpful conversations happen when we get real about our periods and open up a dialogue that allows every person who menstruates to have a voice.
We all bleed different colours based on our individual cycle… Or we might not bleed at all, and that too is a reality of periods. There are those who don’t want to see red when they are trying to conceive; those that see it as a bright symbol of hope and a sacred bodily connection; those that connect it to the notion of womanhood, and others who dread that time of the month, and perceive it as a dark, looming, painful moment that they must endure.
It’s such a nuanced topic. And since colour is such a powerful tool for conveying emotions, I felt that the Pantone Period Red didn’t quite capture this. So how else could we use colour to represent diversity in periods, staying true and honest to the really wide spectrum of what they mean to each individual?”
Therefore, in the lead up to International Women’s Day, Khrissie decided to start her own campaign: Let’s get real. Period. She sent out a message to friends, family and beyond, asking them to pick a shade from a wider palette of reds (including Pantone’s ‘Period’ red), pinks, browns and purples, and to explain their choice by sharing what their period means to them.
The colour palette provided to those who took part in Khrissie’s campaign. Pantone’s ‘Period’ red is number 35.
The responses she received are incredibly different, rich, touching and – of course – colourful, in all senses. All are shown below – raw, honest and unabridged – and Khrissie has used the shades selected to create the visuals for this article.
We hope you find these stories – no matter how challenging or different from your personal beliefs – to be inspiring and eye-opening. And that they will help to continue to break the taboos around this topic for everyone. Because it really is time to get real… Period.
I used to hate my periods. However, as I’m getting older I now treasure them, as they make me feel like a normal woman. As I’m getting older and my periods are getting more irregular, I feel I’m going crazy sometimes. So when my period arrives, it’s like I’m ok again. I dislike the pain, but I am also dreading my next chapter of menopause.
I’ll be honest, I’ve been really lucky and not found my period annoying or a hindrance ever, with only slight changes to my mood, appetite or sleep each month. But lockdown initially made my periods irregular and now they really affect my mood. The last three months I could not work out what was wrong with me, or why I was crying at work. And now I have trouble controlling my emotions when I’m on my period. I’m not sure if this is temporary thing due to the pressures of lockdown or it’s here to stay.
My period represents my womanhood and the ability to create life. I chose the deep dark red to represent the essence of my sacral chakra, rooted in Mother Earth, a blood lifeline, grounded in LOVE. I am a woman, unapologetically embracing my emotions as well as my fierce, yet compassionate, divine feminine essence.
It is the alluring essence of my ALL…..”PERIOD”.
At the age of 12 years old, to be exact, my monthly flow arrived for the first time on a summer afternoon. That day I accepted many congratulations… My Mom literally called my two older sisters into the bathroom to congratulate me for officially becoming a young lady. Some may say, “Funny!”
“Big deal” it is indeed. Each month my body naturally notifies me about the amazing creation I have been created to be.
My monthly menstruation, “Period” and natural flow means that within me lives a special capability. I am given the right to allow a formation process of another human being to proceed within my body…
One hot June day, my monthly visitor (I call it), didn’t arrive.
An extra feeling of gratitude filled my entire self for the following nine months. I am able to still acknowledge and own that special feeling of gratitude ten years later; every time I see my little boy’s big brown eyes.
Today, this 40 year old Mom, Wife, Daughter, Sister, Friend, LADY is honoured to receive my monthly “ABUNDANCE” reminder of my BEING.
My body doesn’t deal well with my natural periods, which will have me curled up in excruciating, angered pain for ten days with only a moment’s relief in between pain waves. I therefore need help from a tiny pill which allows me to do as I please with only a bit of discomfort here and there. I dread the day I need to take a break from them and have to turn back from rosy days with a thin liner to blood and tear stained sheets, something that resembles a diaper and a mountain of chocolate.
When I first got my period, it was 3 days after my thirteenth birthday. Most of my friends had already started bleeding, and I was very aware that it was on its way to me.
Growing up, my mother was always very open with me about her period. I’d see her blood in the toilet seat and it just felt… Normal.
Somehow, I had picked up on negative connotations of periods from my friends at school. I always saw them hiding their pads on the way to the toilet and people just didn’t talk about it!
Contrastingly, when I had my first bleed, my large extended Lebanese family celebrated me as I stepped into ‘womanhood’. I felt proud and excited about getting to know the experience all my friends were having.
Soon enough my excitement fizzled out and was replaced with dread.
The first few years menstruating were intense. My flow was insanely heavy, meaning I’d have to change my pad every 3 hours. I had a few embarrassing leaks at school, and I began to feel like being a woman was a burden.
A few years ago, I met a woman who makes and sells reusable cloth pads. She has studied the feminine, and holds deep remembrance around the sacredness of our menstrual cycle. She impacted the way I viewed and felt into my blood.
I began using these cloth pads, washing out my blood and resting during my bleeding time.
I now welcome my period with so much respect. I listen to my body and honour her needs. And month after month, my menstrual cycle is one of my greatest teachers.
My period teaches me how to soften, like the colour I chose. How to stop judging, criticising and how to not search for a magic pill that doesn’t help me in the long term. How to find real alignment in my physical body so that my period can be a beautiful, celebratory expression of being alive as a woman on this planet.
My period has transformed from being something I deeply feared and felt sick over to the most beautiful, loving body connection. I used to vomit, pass out and feel so poorly due to the pain! I got my period very young, I was 10. And it was a constant rejection of self every time my bleed began. Through a lot of inner work, I now love my bleeds. The pain is very minimal but it reminds me that I’m human and gives me space to slow down. Our period cycle is one of the most vital signs of health we have, it’s a beautiful way to connect to your body and get to know yourself. Connecting with your cycle, understanding and honouring your energy is absolutely liberating!
Education is so important, knowing what’s happening within your body is a basic human right and it’s my mission to educate and empower women to connect to their bodies from a place of deep compassion and kindness.
As a 43-year-old, perimenopausal woman, I am sad that I have only come to fully appreciate my menstrual cycle and period in the last couple of years. I used to tolerate my period and just wait for it to be over, but having read Wild Power by Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer, I now have a deep and reverent appreciation for my period when it turns up each month. I am a little bit sad that I don’t have many years left to enjoy the deep connection I now have with my bleed, my womb and my knowing each month.
Through Menstrual Cycle Awareness I have learnt to live in sync with my menstrual cycle and recognise when I am in need of rest and retreat during my period and when I can ride the high of summer as I go through ovulation. Sadly, as I am perimenopausal, I no longer ovulate every cycle and so I am learning how to live with the fact I am approaching my final winter and cherish every bleed as a chance to go within and listen to my body and my intuition as they prepare me for the cycle ahead.
Having read Wild Power and discovered the sheer genius of menstrual cycle tracking, I read Period Power by Maisie Hill and it opened my eyes to how my menstrual health is so intricately linked to my physical and mental health. It taught me the science behind my cycle and my period which I wish I had learnt years ago. This book should be a must read for every teenaged girl as she travels through puberty to remove the fear and taboo around periods. My own teenaged daughter will testify to the fact that a day rarely goes by when I do not quote Maisie!
Deepening my own connection with my period has also opened my eyes to the immense amount of shame there is connected to periods and talking about periods. It also made me aware of how many people struggle each month to afford or access sanitary products. My heartbreak at anyone having to suffer a period without the sanitary products needed for a clean and comfortable period led me to start the All Yours project with my 14-year-old daughter, Cara, in December 2020. To date, we have made and distributed over 1000 period boxes to help people struggling with period poverty in the South of England. You can often tell if someone isn’t eating properly, or if they cannot afford to heat their home, but you will rarely know that someone is struggling with period poverty, as it is such a personal matter to raise with anyone.
Everyone should be entitled to bleed each time in comfort and with dignity. My favourite quote comes from Gloria Steinem in 1978, who wrote that if men had periods “menstruation would be an enviable, boast-worthy, masculine event: men would brag about how long and how much.” I think she could have added, “and all sanitary products would be free.”
Caroline is the founder of the All Yours project. If you would like to know more or would like to support their work, see here.
My cycle is an opportunity for me to slow down and get in tune with what my body is desiring. It has taught me to listen deeply to what my body is asking for, whether it be deep rest, a long bath or a good cry. In our society, we are prided on the go-go-go mentality and what my cycle brings me is the awareness that deep creativity comes from a state of receptivity and nothing puts me in that space more than my moon. Learning how to continuously slow down and pay attention to the subtle signs that our body and being are always giving us. It’s really about deep feminine time to be with just me, to become deeply intimate with the self and live each moment in tune with my intuitive calls.
I chose a super alarming red because that’s how I see it. I experience tiredness, moodiness, discomfort, horrible migraines. But the most important thing I won’t say is that I hate it because I know that this is a natural process in every girl’s body. This is part of me being a woman.
I wanted to share how normalising periods has changed the relationship between me and my boyfriend. I used to always dread getting my period because it means you can’t have intercourse and there was a layer of guilt I felt about that… You know, for being a woman and causing this break.
I’ve come to realise that this is a load of bulls**t. We as females have been inhaling this information over the years and now have this picture of periods being a problem, being something annoying and dreadful, so as a couple we worked through completely changing this thinking.
It turned out my boyfriend never had those ideas in his head, but I did, because we never openly spoke about it before and it became something we never celebrated. Since we have worked through it the past few years we now celebrate whenever I get my period because it means my body is healthy, it means I’m not expecting, and it allows him to hold space for me, because there is now an understanding between us.
My period is a rite of passage. I still remember the day I got it, it felt special and scary at the same time. I timidly ran downstairs and asked my mom to come into the bathroom with me. She had been prepping me for this moment. We celebrated with a ritual rite of passage with other women role models in the community who shared the wisdom of their wombs with me to honour this gateway of womanhood.
Every time I have my sacred moon time or bleed, I am excited for the opportunity to shed the layers which no longer serve me and welcome the newness that dawns post shedding. I collect my moon blood in a jar, as I use reusable feminine products, and when I complete my bleed, I offer my blood back to the earth. Many ancient cultures offered blood back to the earth as a way to thank the spirits, gods and goddesses, as it is one of the elixirs of life. So in this way I am thanking the earth/yoniverse/creator spirits for my life.
I used to be so afraid of my period! I was bullied a lot at school and there were lots of mean things said about periods in classes, about teachers and in general it being gross and dirty. I used to dread my period coming.
My mum wouldn’t let me use tampons because she thought I was too young. I was so worried about leaking, especially at school. I would wear these super thick night-time pads that were like walking with a rolled up towel between my legs. They were uncomfortable, moved a lot and weren’t as great at protecting me as I’d hoped.
Although I started using tampons when I went to college, these experiences set my mindset for the relationship with my period into my 30s. I was always worried no matter what I was doing, even sitting and sleeping. I was always popping to the loo to check I hadn’t leaked and would often change my tampon before it was anywhere near full.
My life changed when I decided to eliminate my single use period plastic consumption and found menstrual cups. I made the change thinking I might have to make a downgrade in my period experience when in fact I actually got a massive upgrade. The cups gave me a peace of mind and freedom that I’d never experienced before. The level of comfort and protection that lil’ cup gave me meant that my mind was suddenly free from all the worry. Oh, and all those things I loved to do, but couldn’t on my period were back on my schedule.
I started to fall in love with my period and learnt about cycle tracking, the benefits of periods and the gorgeous nature of our female bodies. I also learnt a lot about the health benefits of not using tampons, tracking my period and listening to my body. I was so surprised that I didn’t know any of these things and they hadn’t been a part of my education.
It’s now my passion to empower women to be free and fierce in their lives, PERIOD.
Mary’s experience inspired her to create the menstrual cup brand fleXXi fit. For more information, see here.
My periods have never been straightforward. I can go months without one but I still have the symptoms as if it were coming.
I have to be on contraception to help with my mood swings. When I’m not on contraception, the week I’m due a period my mental health takes a really dark turn. Being on the contraception helps balance my moods better and I don’t have as many dark days.
Me and my period have a love-hate relationship. Having grown up with lots of tests for irregular, heavy periods I’ve always felt it’s a nuisance. Quietly relieved when it finally arrived only to be quickly wishing it away again.