Dot Girl is excited to announce our new partnership with Women’s Health Foundation (WHF). WHF is a nonprofit organization committed to improving women’s pelvic health and wellness. A portion of the proceeds from all Dot Girl purchases will go to WHF’s research and development of evidence-based programming in schools and communities.
Jenifer Donatelli Ihm, WHF Outreach Educator and Program Developer, stated “I can’t think of a better way to help girls feel comfortable and prepared – even special – for that big day, their first period. The Dot Girl First Period Kit is cool, cute, and educational. I can’t wait to include it in my presentations to elementary and middle school girls.”. Dot Girl is honored to be part of WHF’s outreach in the community and to have their endorsement.
Dot Girl Products and Women’s Health Foundation are devoted to the pelvic health and wellness of all girls and women. In support of that effort, Dot Girl will be including the WHF Potty Pledge postcard in our shipping boxes. The Potty Pledge is aimed at adolescent girls and lists proper bathroom habits. Tips listed on the book of the postcard include information on the proper way to wipe, how to position yourself on the toilet, tricks on completely emptying your bladder, the importance of drinking water, and how often to empty your bladder.
WHF will also soon be releasing a book for adolescent girls, Below Your Belt: How to Be Queen of Your Own Pelvic Region, building on the information they currently distribute through classes for adult women. Dot Girl will be reviewing the book on this blog once it becomes generally available.
We urge you and your daughter to explore the Women’s Health Foundation website to find information, classes, and support for pelvic health and wellness.
On the Dot – The Perfect Spot
I was recently introduced to a product that I just had to share with my readers. Especially those tired of storing feminine supplies in plastic bags that always seem to rip apart and spill their contents.
The On the Dot storage box for tampons and feminine pads is new to the market and oh so cute. Available in three different eye catching designs named after butterflies, the box is specifically made to discreetly store your monthly supplies while also being pretty enough to sit on your bathroom counter all the time.
The founder of On the Dot, Audrey Unrau, was inspired by her daughter’s self made box to store tampons and pads. Audrey realized her daughter had a great idea and decided to design and manufacture the product.
Plenty of storage space for pads and tampons.
The box also has a plastic frame on the bottom to keep things neat and clean and protect against any bathroom water damage. With three designs, there is one that will fit any bathroom decor. The California Sister version (pictured) was specifically designed for young tweens. The brightly colored box is a wonderful alternative to the plastic bags that feminine pads are sold in making having a period just a bit more fun for girls.
On the Dot has a community page where you can share your period stories and thoughts about the On the Dot product. You can also participate in creating new designs for the boxes. What a fun project for a mother and daughter to do together!
My daughter is 25 now and throughout her dating career I’ve been a little bit of a protective mother and tried to make sure she was in positive relationships. Fortunately that was always the case, however, it may not be the case for every teenage girl. Valentine’s Day is supposed to be about hearts and flowers between loved ones. Lurking in the background though is the possibly of relationship violence. That is why when I saw this article in our local newspaper I thought it would be a good idea to post it for our readers. The article lists phone numbers for support services in the local area. Take some time to research what the resources are in your area and share them with your daughter.
Mukilteo Beacon, February 12, 2014: DVS Working to Prevent Teen Dating Violence
February, often seen as a month for love and relationships, is also Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month.
This month, Alyssa Morgan, the teen dating violence prevention expert for Domestic Violence Services of Snohomish County, hopes to raise awareness and prevention of abuse in teen relationships.
An educator, Morgan visits high school and middle school classrooms throughout the county, and teaches students through presentations and interactive activities about healthy relationships so that they are less likely to get involved in an abusive one.
“This is investing in the age where they are starting their relationships, even as early as 11 years,” Morgan said. “It gives us an opportunity to promote healthy relationships, show them what that is, and give them tools to develop healthy relationships. It’s all about education.”
According to DVS, an estimated one in three teens ages 12-18 will be victims of abuse in their relationships. The abuse can be physical, sexual, emotional, verbal or – these days – digital.
However, many don’t know violence in teen relationships is an issue because only 33 percent of teens who are “dating” will report it, according to DVS.
So far in the Mukilteo School District, Morgan has shared her age-appropriate curriculum with students at both Mariner and Kamiak high schools and is working to expand to Voyager Middle School.
Her overall goal is to get teens talking openly about relationships – gender stereotypes, what is healthy, what they want out of a relationship, what isn’t heathy and what they don’t want.
“I also ask the kids, ‘What do you value about yourself?’” Morgan said. “Because what I learned is that it starts inside; it starts with them individually. If they don’t value themselves, then these kids are not able to develop healthy relationships.”
Sarah McCoy teaches Family and Consumer Sciences, Family Health, Personal Choices and Independent Living at Mariner High School. She has asked Morgan to talk to her classes several times.
“For my students, it’s very, very relevant, because they either grow up in homes where they see it or they have experienced it or they know others who have experienced it,” McCoy said.
“They’re dating, they’re in relationships, and they know about abuse, but they don’t recognize the key warning signs.”
Morgan said teens who see abusive relationships as the norm at home are more likely to become victims of abuse or an abuser.
However, when she asks students what a healthy relationship means to them, all of them say it’s about trust, loyalty, love and compatibility.
“They know these things because those words mean something to everybody, but they don’t all know how to put that into practice,” Morgan said. “They don’t all know what is the active sense of those words.”
Morgan said their lack of relationship experience makes teens more susceptible to dating violence. They may confuse jealousy, possessiveness and abuse with signs of love and affection.
“A lot of times, in these relationships, it’s the rose-color glasses,” she said. “They think, ‘It will never happen to me’ or ‘It’s just stress,’ or ‘It’s not that big of a deal.’”
She said the mistake teens make is thinking that they can fix their relationship or that they can change their partner.
“Abuse escalates over time,” Morgan said. “It doesn’t start off with a black eye – it starts off with someone telling you that you’re worthless.”
Teens are more likely to talk to their peers than an adult about their relationships, out of fear that they will lose their newfound independence, Morgan said.
However, she said talking to their peers might make it harder for a victim to judge if his or her partner’s behavior is out of line. Not only that, peer intervention may increase the victim’s risk.
Just part time, Morgan said she wishes she could educate more teens about healthy relationships, but right now the funds aren’t there to make hers a full-time position. She said she has visited about a third of the county’s schools.
Morgan said her presentations seem to be helping. At least one student per classroom comes up afterward and shares a dating experience or says, “Thank you – I didn’t know.”
“You have to nip it in the bud, address it, talk about it,” Morgan said. “It’s scary. We don’t want to talk about abuse, but it is happening.
“We have to start having conversations about these types of things. If we don’t, it’s not going to get any better.”
If you’re in an abusive relationship, call the DVS 24-hour Crisis Hotline at 425-25-ABUSE to report it. If you need urgent help, call 911.
Go to www.dvs-snoco.org for more information about dating violence and prevention.
Want Morgan to visit your school? Contact her at alyssa@dvs-snoco.org.
The following are warning signs of dating violence, if your boyfriend or girlfriend…
• Is excessively jealous
• Checks in with you constantly or makes you check in with him/her
• Has an explosive temper
• Is violent and/or has a history of fighting, abuses animals and/or brags about mistreating others
• Tries to control you by giving orders, making all the decisions, telling you what you should and should not do
• Pressures you or is forceful about sex
• Isolates you from friends and family and talks badly of those who are important to you
• Believes in the stereotypical gender roles
• Gets too serious about the relationship too fast
• Blames you when he/she mistreats you and tells you that you provoked him/her
• Does not accept responsibility for his/her actions
• Has a history of bad relationships and blames them on previous partners
• You fear or worry about how he/she will react to what you say or do
• Owns or uses weapons
• Won’t let you break up with him/her
Above information from Domestic Violence Services of Snohomish County.
See original article here.
Over the years Dot Girl Products has looked for ways to support girl empowerment organizations. We have donated to the Central Asia Institute, an organization that promotes peace through education by establishing more than 171 schools, most of them for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. We have also made donations to the Mukilteo School District where we are located and promoted the Day of the Girl events.
We’ve done this to help raise awareness amongst our readers of the good works being done by these organizations. When we were contacted to share the below infographic we just knew it was one more way to get the word out and recommend ways to help.
‘The Kids Aren’t All Right’ infographic details the countries in the world that are the worst for kids, our most vulnerable population. Information is tabulated for everything from percent of child laborers to rates of teen suicides.
How can you help? We’ve mentioned before a great book that points you in the proper direction. Half The Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicolas D. Kristof (a New York Time columnist) and Sheryl WuDunn. While the book focuses on the plights facing young girls, many of the organizations listed in the book help all children. We encourage you to visit the Half the Sky website to find out more.
Produced By Healthcare Administration Degree Programs
Only 17 days left for Christmas shopping! Which means it’s time for Dot Girl to roll out our annual list of gift recommendations. This week we are concentrating on books of which there is a perfect one for every child. These are books that are new (to us at least) this past year – some you may have heard of, some may be new to you. All of them are great reads.
Something to Hold by: Katherine Schlick Noe
Based on the author’s childhood growing up on Warms Springs Reservation in Oregon the book explores differences and how friendships can still grow from those differences. Winner of the 2012 Washington State Book Award for Middle Grades and Young Adults
The Book Thief by: Markus Zusak
This young adult novel (ages 14 and up) is getting quite a bit of attention later because of the movie release. Skip the movie and read the book instead. It is one of my all time favorites and I didn’t read it until last year, well past young adulthood. Cleverly narrated by Death, the book demonstrates what it means to care for others while we are on this earth.
A Tangle of Knots by: Lisa Graff
Set in a magical world where everyone has a special Talent, the main character Cady – whose Talent is cake baking, embarks on a journey that may lead to her long lost parent. Whimsical and delightful and sure to capture any young girl’s imagination. Winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.
Drama by: Raina Telgemeier
I’m partial to this book because our youngest son, and all his friends, are drama geeks. He’s a college student now, but we spent years driving him back and forth to a community theater where he took part in many productions. This book captures well the ‘drama’ of being involved in the dramatic arts – especially at the middle school level.
Three Times Lucky by: Sheila Turnage
A debut novel, this book has garnered lots of recognition, all well deserved. Rising sixth-grader Mo LoBeau leads her small town through mystery and adventure as she investigates a murder and searches for her long lost mother.
May your daughter enjoy happy reading this Christmas season!
When my kids were little and would bring back their trick or treat bags on Halloween it seemed like the bags were stuffed with candy corn. While I like candy corn and so do my kids and husband, you can only eat so much of it. At least straight out of the bag. With that in mind, and the fact that we are going to a Halloween party this year, I thought I would go in search of more creative ways to use candy corn. Turns out I’m not the only one who had this idea. Here are some of the fun and delicious ways candy corn can be used in familiar recipes.
A sugary treat, but still healthy because of the popcorn, Tattooed Martha brings us Candy Corn Popcorn Balls. Use them as a center piece and then pass out for dessert.
Another healthy treat uses candy corn in a traditional trail mix recipe. This is a great recipe and like any trail mix you can add and subtract ingredients to suit your family’s tastes. I like the colorful look of this one. Plus it includes my favorite chocolate candy M&M’s.
Alida’s Kitchen showcases Candy Corn White Chocolate Pretzels. I think these can work at an adult or kids party. For the adults, serve on a pretty tray. For the kids, fill a big orange bowl and pass out. Also a fun snack to have while watching scary movies.
Shugary Sweets Pay Day Cookies uses an unusual mix of ingredients to come up with a great tasting cookie. I think this is a cookie kids could easily make and have fun with. I would try different flavors of M&M’s or maybe even butterscotch or white chocolate pieces.
I love peppermint bark at Christmas time. Now I can indulge at Halloween time too with this Dark Chocolate Candy Corn Bark from FoodDoneLight.com. It sounds incredibility rich and I might have to limit myself to just one piece – an hour.
Happy Halloween!
Don’t keep sex a secret from your daughter!
Parents: It’s time to show your daughters (and sons too) some love. October is National Family Sexuality Education Month as promoted by Planned Parenthood and a coalition of non-profit organizations since 2002. This month is the perfect time to prepare yourself to have some sex talks with your daughter. The goal? To educate kids about sex, love, relationships, menstrual periods, body parts and so many other topics that your daughter wants to know about and you might be afraid to talk about.
Dot Girl is here is help with the discussion. I’ve put together a list of some resources for you to draw from. Use one, use them all, but use them to talk to your daughter about sex. Research shows children want this information from their parents, not their peers. She may not appear to be listening, but really she is.
Planned Parenthood Tools for Parents
Start with the premier provider of sexual health services. Watch the first video to get your courage up and then watch the rest for tips on what to say and when to say it. Most importantly, pay attention to the information on how to help your daughter delay her first sexual experience and then how to help her stay safe if and when she does start. Risky behavior is not something you want your daughter to engage in.
What She Must Know About Contraception
Methods of contraception have multiplied over the past 20 years. Need help explaining which is which to your daughter? This infographic from Greatlist will help. Review all the methods, some won’t be appropriate for a girl in her teens. But better to know what is available early before it is too late. And make sure she knows that contraception is a joint responsibility for both partners. More thoughts on this topic here.
Yes, she targets adult sexual relationships. And yet there are times when she has good advice for parents too. Catch her on Oprah.com for a great article about Having the Sex Talk with Your Kids.
A great site courtesy of Nemours, this site has plenty of information for girls about puberty and what bodily changes to expect. Review the information and share with your daughter. There are also resources for parents.
Remember, the more information your daughter has about sex, the more informed she will be about sex. The more informed she is about sex, the safer she will be having sex. Good Luck!
We all know that starting a new school year can be a stressful time. Dot Girl Products has just made it a little less stressful by partnering with Dear Kate to bring our customers a limited edition First Flow Set. The set is available only at the Dear Kate website. Whether your daughter has already started her menstrual cycles or is still waiting for that all important first period, she needs to be ready with the right supplies to store in her backpack or locker.
The First Flow Set includes:
Dear Kate underthings incorporate revolutionary patent-pending fabric to keep your daughter prepped for anything. The inner lining is black and stain-releasing, and the underwear is machine washable, so she’ll never hand wash again. A leak-resistant outer layer protects against leaks of all kinds, while wicking fabric on the inside keeps girls cool and comfortable.
Read all about the importance of slipping a period pack into her backpack here.
This offer expired September 1, 2013.
Hard to believe, but it is back to school time yet again. And kids throughout the country are doing their usual complaining. But school doesn’t have to be all that bad. It’s definitely easier to see friends when everyone is in school. The summer time boredom blues disappear with the start of school activities. And every girl loves to do the annual back to school clothes shopping trip. Plus there always seem to be fun new products for school supplies.
Just to make back to school time not so hard, I’ve done a little searching on Pinterest and come up with a few do-it-yourself school projects that will fit any budget.
This is a clever idea I want to do on every notebook I own. Use chalkboard paint to turn the front cover of a notebook into a place to write reminders on the go. Or draw a new picture every day to suit a mood. Your kids will come up with many original ideas on what to paint and how to use their chalkboard notebooks.
These clothespins help solve the problem of how to display children’s artwork without using scotch tape which always seems to tear the paper. Each child in the family can make their own personalized set of magnetic clothespins so hanging their artwork will be even more special. What a great way to decorate the refrigerator!
What a fun and permanent way for kids to collect first day of school greetings. A t-shirt that looks like a notebook. Do one every year to remember new friends made on the first day of school.
I’m going to guess every tween girl is going to want one of these pocket books to store her stickers. A clever idea to keep pens and pencils handy too and a great way to use jeans that your kid has outgrown.
I’m sure there are plenty more creative ideas to make the first day of school fun. Please share in the comments your ideas for us all to enjoy.