This isn’t your parents’ sex ed: a new children’s book character, Toni the Tampon, is here to teach America’s children all about transgender menstruation!
Toni, a “little genderqueer tampon,” stars in a new coloring book called “The Adventures of Toni the Tampon,” by children’s author Cass Clemmer. She’s accompanied by friends, like Sebastian, the male-identifying sponge.
The book is designed to “smash the period taboo” by educating kids about “menstruators of all genders”—basically, showing kids that men (or, at least, those who now identify as men but were born female) also get their feminine monthlies.
Clemmer, who is described in her bio as an “artist and menstrual health educator,” explained in an interview why she created Toni: Clemmer grew up as a conservativ, religious home and was taught to “be ashamed” of her period. She would later “embrace [her] own cycle” and begin drawing Toni the Tampon to show her “period pride.” (Yes, these are all direct quotes.)
“Hopefully this book will serve as a creative reminder that menstrual education should be encouraged and celebrated, so that we stop teaching young kids and adults to be ashamed of their own periods,” she added.
But Clemmer’s fascinations with tampons didn’t end at a coloring book: she also takes a real-life Toni the Tampon—a regular tampon with googly eyes glued onto it—with her when she travels, taking pictures at tourist attractions and even making hats for it in the winter.
“It’s pretty cool to see people so excited about showing off a tampon in public, instead of hiding it up my sleeve on my way to the bathroom,” she explained.
“The Adventures of Toni the Tampon” is just $10.80 on Amazon, in case you too want to show your “period pride.” However, the book has just 2.5 stars, from 57 customer reviews.
AAN Staff
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