My first period started just after I turned twelve. To say I was ecstatic would be an understatement. Unlike a lot of adolescents, I had been desperate to join the secret club that more than a few of my friends had already been invited to join. I had agonised for months beforehand, convinced it would never arrive. I longed for the secret knowledge that I felt sure came with first menarche and yearned for the day it would flood through me.

As I quickly discovered, menstruation doesn’t flow through so much as out of a person. It didn’t take long for me to join the ranks of those around me who were full of complaints about its monthly torment, the tedious need to make sure you had menstrual products on you at all times and the dreaded fear that someone (read: your male peers at school) would find out you were “on the rag”.

It’s been twenty five years since I started bleeding on a monthly basis, but it seems not much has changed in terms of its secrecy. The folks behind Lunette (manufacturers of menstrual cups, which I highly recommend - in fact, I’m using one as I write this) have launched the Sustainable Period Project to help reduce menstrual product environmental waste and to instill positivity in school age children. (They are supported by ModiBodi, revolutionary period pants made right here in Australia and in whom I have also placed monthly trust.)

This first issue is one of paramount importance, especially in light of new Australian curriculum guidelines that encourages all subjects to include an element of sustainability. According to the Sustainable Period Project, there are six million Australian and New Zealand people of menstruating age. Each will use about 22 disposable menstrual products per cycle, which translates to between 11,000 - 16,000 in their lifetime. When you do the maths on that, it’s a lot of tampons and disposable pads going into landfill. It’s simply unacceptable to continue supporting that level of waste.

But the other issue of instilling period positivity is also long overdue. Karen Pickering is a feminist organiser and writer working with Jane Bennett at the Victorian Women’s Trust on a large scale project about menstruation and menopause in contemporary Australia, and she agrees that menstruation is still shrouded in shame.

“Lots of girls don’t have anyone modeling period positivity in their lives,” Pickering told me. “Girls typically get their first periods between 10 and 15 so we need to start talking about it way before then. Our data shows that many women and girls feel shame around their periods, and academic research backs this up. There are links between menstrual shame and self-harm, eating disorders and depression in girls and women, as well as impacting sexual decision-making and later in life, even contributing to traumatic birth experiences.”

It’s not just those inculcated with shame who are impacted by the menstrual taboo. As Pickering says, “Even women who don’t feel period shame live in a world that does - who hasn’t hidden a tampon up their sleeve or made an excuse about ‘being sick’ when they’re not? It’s weird that we hide this thing that everybody knows is happening.”

Even more concerning is the knowledge that shame around menstruation prevents some adolescents from fully participating in the world around them. Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, an activist based in New York, told Mic.com, “For a 13 or 14 year old girl who is new to the experience of menstruation, it can be so much more than a distraction. It can keep them from being fully engaged and participating in school.”

But promoting period positivity is much easier than people believe. Even those who don’t menstruate can take an active role in challenging its taboos by becoming supportive community members. I am inspired particularly by a group of schoolboys at James Hillhouse High School in Connecticut, who together formed the Kiyama Movement, “a group that promotes self-improvement among African-American men and mutual respect across genders.”

When the group launched in 2016, it rapidly grew to include more than 15 young men of colour who worked across a range of roles to make sure their fellow students had access to menstrual products at school. One of the group’s leaders, Samithasen Hubbard, told the New Haven Register, “This is an opportunity for us as young men to help diminish the inequality gap between males and females. I take pride in what we are doing.”

Menstruation is a normal part of life, and directly experienced by half the population. Yet in Australia, most menstrual products are still subject to a tax that declares them ‘luxury items’ and menstruation itself continues to be cloaked in secrecy.

The Sustainable Period Project aims to break down menstrual taboos by providing Resource Kits to participating schools to help promote positive menstrual education. Each kit contains samples of menstrual cups, reusable period underpants, biodegradable disposable pads, reusable cloth pads, videos and activities that can be used by educators for years to come. The kit is appropriate for students in years 7 to 10 and can be used as part or whole of a lesson plan. Even better, the Sustainable Period Project aims to provide resource kits to all secondary schools across Australia and New Zealand by the year 2020. (You can order a kit for your school and download education resources here.)