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Hear ye, hear ye! Professional oversharer Tori Spelling managed to talk about something that wasn’t her marriage or kids. For anyone who hasn’t kept track, Tori has a podcast called misSPELLING, in which she tells stories about her life, soon-to-be-ex husband, and kids. Her kids hate it, but Tori bravely perseveres in the name of a paycheck. On this week’s episode, Tori shared the story of her first period with the class. She was 14 years old and about to go into a pool in Las Vegas when she first got it. She was there with her mom and a friend, and when she told them both what had happened, they each had two very different reactions. Her friends suggested using a tampon so she could still swim while her mom went in the total opposite direction and found a sanitary belt for Tori to use.
Tori Spelling experienced her first period at age 14 during a month-long stay in Las Vegas — and her mom offered an interesting solution.
“We were all prepped for the pool and then it came. So, I got my period,” Tori, 51, said during the Tuesday, July 9, episode of her “Misspelling” podcast. “My mom was like, ‘OK, we have to get you something. We have to get you feminine products for this.’”
Tori recalled her friend telling her to get tampons so they could swim on the trip, but Tori’s mom, Candy Spelling, suggested “a belt” instead.
“I was like, ‘What’s a belt?’ I’m not kidding, you guys. I don’t even know if they make this anymore,” Tori continued. “It was archaic even when my mom recommended it. But it’s basically a snap-on elastic belt that you wear around your waist, and it holds the pad. … And it’s not just a pad, it’s a mega pad.”
She recalled it being “the fluffiest thing” she’s ever seen.
“It was a goddamn f—king diaper,” Tori added. “It was a motherf—king diaper. I was wearing a diaper around my waist, and it was an elastic band. You couldn’t cover it up.”
To this day, Tori has no idea how her mom found the belt during their vacation.
“My friend was hysterically laughing at me, and I was hysterically crying, because I was like, ‘Oh, my God, what am I gonna do?’” the actress recalled. “It didn’t matter if I even turned that damn bathing suit around and had the butt part in the front. You couldn’t cover this thing. And it looked like I had a penis.”
Tori referred to it as “a chastity belt, but for teens with their period.” (The actual title of said tool is a sanitary belt and was used by menstruating women before the 1970s.)
Thinking from a parent standpoint, Tori admitted it was “a good tool” to keep boys away. “No guy would ever want to go near a girl wearing that,” she added.
While she didn’t go to the pool that first day, Tori recalled “getting smart” and adjusting the belt to work for her.
“I would sneak into my parents’ room and take my dad’s razor, and I would DIY my padded belt,” she added. “I would, like, shave the pad down, and then, they forgot about it. I had a diaper on for seven days. So, as they say, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”
OMG. I’m both laughing and cringing at Tori’s retelling of the story. I got embarrassed easily when I was that age, so I probably would have died if my mom made me wear that. Hell, it took me two years to work up the nerve to ask to use a tampon. Like Tori, I was also 14 when I got my period and remember being filled with dreadful anticipation for like two years leading up to getting it, especially because my girlfriends had all begun getting theirs around ages 11-12. My little sister got her period like six months after I got mine, and she’s two years younger than me, haha.
Since I got my first period in the late 1990s, I only knew about sanitary belts because I had read “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret” in seventh grade, lol. Come to think of it, I learned a lot from that book. Yay, Judy Blume. <3. Anyway, I can imagine how mortified Tori was to have to wear one while in a bathing suit, especially with it being her first time getting her period in general. At least it makes for a decent story that doesn’t involve embarrassing her kids.
Photos credit: Helen LaRuse via Wikipedia, Getty and via Instagram