When did you start?

I am so worried. my daughter has started in with major moodiness, which could just be her, or it could be pms! I hope she doesn't start this young (she is 9)!!!

I hope you don't resonate that worry to your daughter. that would be so sad.(IMO)
I hope she can feel (as I wish I'd been taught)- that she is special and that this is a VERY natural thing, not to be frightened, ashamed or to feel she is a burden or flawed.(not that you would do that-- just my own experience) I hope she can be taught to accept it as it is and embrace herself and her body with love, respect and comfort.
I grew up near a family -- when the daughters started- their mom took each daughter out for a mom-daughter day. They shopped, went out to dinner and saw a movie. It was a "connection of femininity" (i watched, from afar with admiration for that mother)
That's what I'd do if I had a daughter.

best to you and your daughter-- hope she can feel good about her being female.

fins

I started at 11. I remember crying when I started mine.

I started mine at 14, a couple of hours before my ballet grade! I remember I burst into tears and my Mum gave me a tampon and got on with it and passed my grade

I then went on to develop Endometriosis which is a nightmare to deal with every month!

i voted 11-13, but it actually started when i was 10. from what i remember it wasn't that big of a deal. my mom told me about it two years before hand. so i guess that helped take the weirdness out of it. not long very long after that i went from having a flat chest to having b cups. but i guess that's for another discussion .

I think I started mine at 12, but I can't remember. I know that I was really scared and thought that something was wrong, but my mom helped me

I was 12... And yes you can start it really late, my mom didn't get hers till she was 19. That would really suck, worrying all those years that you'd never get it so you could have kids and all...

I think I was 13 when I started.

I didn't start till after I was 16. And I was worried, my friends all had theirs and told me I wouldn't be able to have kids. I was dealing with anorexia through tho years, I think that made a big impact on my growing, and maturing.

My grandmother started when she was 17!
I started about 2 weeks before my 12th b-day.

I started at 13 years and 8 months, the day after I moved to Ontario.

I started at 14 and a half. It took me several years to fully cope with it because I grew up as a tomboy and suddenly I was a girl.

I was barely 12. Sort of average I suppose

I was 10yrs old when i got my first period, my mum who had to have everything removed after having me enlisted her friend to buy a selection of different sanitary products. I tried a pad and was horrified at the thought i'd have to suffer them for the next 40yrs and was delighted to discover tampons at the bottom of the stash; i've never looked back

I was 11 1/2, I remember being so upset my friends were starting theirs and I didn't start mine, if only I knew how irritating it is when you do finally start

Me too. so unfair!

I got mine a week after I turned thirteen during the summer between seventh and eighth grade.

i had mine at age 10 very heavy period my friends back then thought it was weird at that age lol so did i. my mom's sister didn't get her period until she was 18-19 yrs old really late she had to take meds to get the period started

I was 13 and my relationship with my mother was quickly deteriorating by then, not to mention that I was embarrassed like most 13 year olds are. She found my pads and was extremely upset/offended that I didn't tell her. I came home to her crying, with flowers and chocolate for me. It was kind of terrible...

when i was 11...i was an early developer, got breasts before everyone else etc...i saw an article on here recently about how an absent father/marriage breakdown triggers off early puberty so i don't know if this had anything to do with it. Probably just my genes but whatever the cause, people develop at different rates - we don't even stop developing until our early twenties so i would urge anyone whose worried to just relax, whatever will be will be.

i was in fifth grade, I am thinking 10 years old. I know it was before most if not all my class mates and Several years before my bff

I was 9 when I started didn't know nothing got them. At school really hard especially after got pregnant at 11 for reasons won't say on this forum I to thought I'd die

I was 12 and strangely my mom wanted to have a party. Yeah... not so much...

Also in high school my friend got her period and we were both on the swim team. We were in the bathroom when she realized that she got her period during practice. I actually talked her through using a TP while in the next stall.

10 or 11. I may have had it a time or two before I really noticed. Didn't think anything of it and didn't have a clue. My mom wouldn't talk to me about it. She educated me after I started by handing me a book.

I was a couple months shy of turning 10. Was not expected as I was extremely riny for my age. I thought I was passing blood in my urine. Mom took me to the doctor who put me in the hospital. He did some test and stated that I had just started my first period, also found out that I had 2 cysts on my left kidney.