Life

Girl Thinks Her Sister's Period Means She's Dying

by Lara Rutherford-Morrison

One thing I love about small children is that they often follow a very particular kind of logic, one that makes perfect sense, while at the same time leading them to the completely wrong conclusions. A recent video in which a little girl thinks her sister’s period means she’s dying is a perfect example: If you don’t know what menstruation is, bleeding from one’s genitals does seem like a horror film come to life. Can we blame her for assuming that her sister’s gory death is imminent?

Meeiah Tolentino, 16, lives in Alaska and has a 3-year-old sister, Rain. Meeiah told BuzzFeed News that, like many small children, Rain is “curious” and “loves following everyone in my family around.” Recently, Rain made the mistake of following her big sis into the bathroom and seeing Meeiah’s period blood. Rain made the perfectly logical conclusion that BLOOD = DEATH, and promptly freaked the hell out.

In the video, Meeiah asks her distraught sister, “Why are you crying?” “Because you’re bleeding!” Rain wails. Meeiah asks, “What’s gonna happen?” Rain responds, “You’re dying!

Oh you sweet, innocent child.

I’m pretty sure this video is exactly why the laughing-crying emoji was invented. Meeiah posted it on Twitter last week:

Meeiah assured BuzzFeed that right after the video, she comforted her sister, who quickly got over it. “I even let her pretend to be a doctor and fix me up,” she said. “Two minutes after the video she totally forgot what of happened and went [back] to her normal, happy, self.”

Rain obviously is too young to understand the whole process of menstruation, but her horrified reaction to her sister’s period will certainly feel familiar to people who are old enough to menstruate.

No exaggeration, I’m pretty sure this is the exact face I made the first time I realized that I was going to be having a period every month for the bulk of my adult life. Oh, the joys of womanhood.

Images: Meeiah Tolentino/Twitter