"The first sleepover after that summer was the last sleepover I was invited to in my friend group, who had all suddenly blossomed into cool girls. There were maybe six girls, and one of the girls got her period, so she asked for a pad. And I didn't know about tampons — my mother just didn’t know about tampons and didn't teach me about them. But this girl, she asked for a pad and it turned into mayhem. All the other girls were like, 'Hell no, you have to wear a tampon,' and started pressuring her to use one. I remember people holding her down, her saying, 'No, no,' and then going into the bathroom to put it in herself. All the other girls watched her really closely to make sure she did it, and I stood in the corner, so quiet, hoping to be invisible because I realized at any moment that energy could turn on me. That moment stayed with me a long time, as a defining moment of what it felt like to be that age.