I was around 13-14. 7th or 8th grade I think. I was away from my mom at the time staying with my meme. I was so worried I remember calling her at like 3 am asking her to come get me when I was 3 hrs away.

Also, forgot to pick a decade but it would be around 2002.

I got mine at 12.. The november after I turned, the day my grandfather passed- literally 2 minutes after he passed away in front of me.

I was 14. It sucked, because it was near the beginning of 9th grade. The start of high school. It was bad enough with those circumstances, but I had just started at a new school for high school. It was a rough year. Haha.

I was 11, it was the summer after 4th grade.

I was and still am very athletic and my MD told me that athletes usually start later. Never checked it out but put me a ease at the time......when I was about 12.

I was 12 but I'd read "Dear God, it's me, Margaret" when I was ten so I longed for my period for two YEARS before I got it.

And then longed for it to stop for almost 30. LOL.

Forgot to hit that I got mine in the 90's, only hit the when I was 12 box. For me it was the first year of highschool, yr 7

I was a few weeks away from being 13, so that would have been just about 2001 if I did my math right. December of 2000 I think. It lasted almost 2 weeks and was light, spotty, and seemed really watered down for some strange reason.

I had just turned 13, it was the early 90s. I remember the next morning, standing outside the school in the cold and feeling "different". I was really sad when it happened. I thought, "I don't want to become a woman!" Which is funny because my best friend couldn't wait for her first period, and that was so bizarre to me. I did eventually tell her what happened, but no one else. I'm sure my family figured out when the tampons were used up at a faster rate. I was fairly well prepared, I knew a lot about what was happening, though I never got a sex or puberty talk from my parents. They expected school would teach me. But it didn't so well--what taught me were both ladies' and teens' magazines, encyclopedias, novels, and eventually the internet. Growing up with the internet was wonderful. I could ask nearly any question about my body and get answers! Still, the first few years were extremely hard for me to deal with--for example, I could not seem to change my "dressings" fast enough. It's hard to say if it was just because this was a new thing to get used to or if it was really that bad.

My best friend from Russia started hers at 16 in the 90's .. She and I had a dscussion about it one day and she was saying how strange she thought it was that girls our age in America got their periods before they were teenagers.. Apparently in Russia it was normal to get it as a teenager.

I was in 6th grade. My friend had hers when she was in 4th grade though, so it was like "finally!"

It was the summer of '99, I was 12. I remember it well. My mom was at work so I had to call her to tell her. I also had volleyball camp that day. I remember putting on the baggiest pair of shorts I owned, and I was so worried that all of the girls would be able to tell I was wearing a pad.

I was 15. My first period lasted for 2 weeks

I was 11 when I got mine on the very first day of 6th grade (middle school) it was awful.

13, the day before my 14th birthday. Thanks mother nature!

Ooops picked the wrong decade. Should've said in the 2000's. Oh well.

I got mine at 11 or 12. It came in the night and I woke up nauseous with stained underwear. Was awful. But I had read about it and talked to my friends so I knew what was going on.

Oddly mine still start at night and I can generally guess the exact day due to birth control, so I just take an advil, put in my diva cup, and plug in the heating pad.

Mine was horrible. It was the day before easter, and the only person in the house was my dad. That was the most embarrassing thing ever

I got mine when I was eleven, the summer before sixth grade. It was also the day before I was supposed to leave with my little sister to stay with my step-dad for a week. My mom thought I was too young for tampons (she was probably right--I never would've figured it out back then), but that meant I couldn't go swimming or do any of the fun stuff everyone else was doing.

I didn't get cramps until college, though. I considered myself lucky that they held off for so long, but now... ugh.

I was 11, and I remember my mom being very surprised because she hadn't gotten hers until she was 14. My sister got hers at 12.

I have no memory of what my first period was like or how I learned to deal with it. I voted based on my earliest "period disaster memory" which was me bleeding through my pants in 6th grade.

I will never forget the day. I was 11 and the boy next door whom I just happened to have a crush on asked me to go swimming. I ran home to get my bathing suit on and there it was! The wicked curse! I was needless to say heartbroken my mother didn't tell me about tampons. I didn't find about those wonderful things until I was about 13. And I'm one of the lucky ones I get the wonderful cramps and bleed heavily. One time while I was in bed "dying" my father came in and told me it was all just in my head! A couple of years ago I had a procedure done where they say 85% of the women stop having their periods well guess what?! I was one of the 15% who doesn't-lucky me!! LOL!! I am 49 and still going strong!!