The “Real Barbie,” Lammily, just got more real because now she gets her period. With Lammily size undies, pads and a calendar with dot stickers, the Period Party extension pack provides a teaching tool minus the typical taboo that the menstrual cycle carries. The Period Party also has an informational pamphlet that can be used to educate girls about periods, and what is happening inside of their bodies.
The Lammily website states: “On average, a woman between the ages of 12 and 51 spends a total of 6 years on her menstrual period. Yet, while being a huge part of female life, this perfectly healthy natural process is still surrounded with taboos.”
Nickolay Lamm, creator of the doll, told TIME that he thought Donald Trump’s comments about Megyn Kelly after the first GOP debate represented how periods are still seen as taboo, and can be used as an insult.
Lamm created the Lammily Doll in 2014 after doing a project to demonstrate the unrealistic proportions of dolls like Barbie. Using the dimensions of an average 19-year-old woman, Lamm successfully launched his “Real Barbie” design. Lammily Marks is another extension sticker pack available, which includes things like pimples, cellulite, and freckles. Basically, Lammily is the real MVP, normalizing “imperfection” and periods for kids everywhere.
I remember getting “the talk,” while sitting in a classroom filled with my fellow 11-year-old girls and a whole bunch of moms in the spring of fifth grade. Not really THE talk, but the one you get right when womanhood (if you really want to call getting your period womanhood) is on the horizon. Uncomfortable nervous giggling was the main noise emerging from underneath the crack of the closed door, while a nurse showed us some slides and explained the joyful processes of our uteruses shedding some lining each month. We each walked out of there with a goodie bag (YAS!) with exactly one jumbo pad, a mini-deodorant, some pamphlets, and I think maybe even a pencil. All I know is that random weird shit that was said by either the nurse or the moms who attended still stays with me.
“When I get cramps, I usually don’t want to work out, but then I do, and I feel so much better,” one mom said as her daughter avoided eye contact with everyone.
“If you’re on your period and want to go swimming, it’s better to be in a cold pool rather than a hot tub. The hot tub will make you bleed more because of the warm water,” the nurse said, after a girl asked about swimming when Aunt Flo is in town.
Riveting info. I’m so glad I still remember it. I always think of that mom when I have cramps, and am crouched in a fetal position in my bed. It was all such a proper gesture, but realistically all it did was make us nervous that our vagina was going to explode with blood every time we sat in a hot tub. Plus, since we all had to leave to go to a different room separate from the boys it made periods feel like something that needed to be kept secret, and hushed. It felt a little like these parents in the Lammily “Da Period Talk” promotional video:
Lammily’s Period Party takes menstruation back down to a real level. There is no shame in having a period, Lammily has hers too! If anything, it might give girls an unrealistic expectation of how cute pads and panty liners are supposed to be—I’m a little jealous of Lammily’s myself. But opening up the conversation to younger kids about their periods, in a play-like situation rather than a weird classroom with moms and nurses will help to reduce the stigma that makes girls walk around junior high with a sweatshirt tied around their waste, nervous that a small leak will mean the end of their social life.
Thanks Lammily for helping to start a positive convo about periods! Can we get some of those cute pads in actual size?
Photos via Lammily.
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