Disclaimer: This is a post about being a girl and that thing that comes once a month. So boys, beware, we're talking about periods today! [85]

There's no good way to lead into this blog post. I could lean towards cheesy or funny or maybe even super awkward. Instead I'm just going to come out and say it: being a girl means getting your period once a month, which means using pads and/or tampons, which means creating lots of trash. One of the most common-sense approaches to becoming environmentally friendlier (aka one way to change the world) is to create less trash. The slogan "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" ring any bells? I'm a fan of less trash for so many reasons. There's the environmental impact, the fact that I have to carry less bags to the side of the road, I have to spend less money buying the trash bags into which I throw the trash, and generally it means I'm buying less stuff in general but also less packaged food and more food from the farmers market. It really sucks when all of that work gets thrown out the window as soon as the cramps start and the pads come out. Cue: cloth pads. It's quite simple: use, rinse, dry, repeat and then throw them in the washer for a thorough cleaning once your period has left the building, at least until the next month. I'll leave out the pictures, just in case some innocent boy wishes to scroll down past this post to the next one, after all, we can't gross them out by flaunting pictures of such girly things such as pads.... But, if you're sick of creating trash and don't want to wear plastic-y diaper-like pads anymore, aka are interested in joining the movement back to cloth, check out the cloth pads (and also the DivaCup) on the Lunapads website. Honestly, I think my favorite part is the little slogan at the top: "eco positive periods" though I'm also a huge fan of Lunapads Pads4Girls campaign supporting education for girls in Malawi (educating girls in Africa is a wonderful cause, the fact that it's Malawi, a country I've wanted to go to for a while for unknown reasons, makes it even more wonderful). There's also the Party in My Pants company. Alright, I'm done with the awkward post. Get excited for next time, present season in September (or October, depending on how slow I am about uploading)!