Author, Ruth (right) and Illustrator, Bethany
MENARCHE – the word that describes a girl’s first period – can be an uneasy and even scary time for young girls but a new book by former Weardalian, Ruth Sabrosa (nee Atkinson), has just been released and it promises to take away the fear, replacing it with a fun but deeply informative look at the inevitable life changes for females.
The book, ‘Magical Menarche’, is a delightful children’s book designed to teach girls about periods and the power within and that there is nothing to be afraid of – in fact, it is a magical time. Ruth wrote this easy-to-follow story, stunningly illustrated by her friend, Bethany Harrison.
Ruth Sabrosa left the Dale in 1999 and headed for London where she enjoyed a career in Films and Television as a Script Supervisor that took her around the world, working on films such as Star Wars and James Bond and TV series, including Vera. In 2010, two years after marrying Pedro, a Visual Effects Supervisor, she had the first of their three daughters and realised that motherhood was a more important role. After re-training as a Hypnobirthing Practitioner and Birth Companion, Ruth’s life completely changed direction into the world of the feminine – pregnancy, birth and motherhood.
After ‘coming home’ in 2020 at the beginning of the Covid lockdown, she spent her time raising her daughters and helping to empower other women and girls. She was one of the leaders of the Wild Sea Women, she organised workshops for mothers and daughters and she found happiness, strength and medicine from the nature surrounding her – in her native Weardale and in her gardens in her new home in Seaham. During lockdown, she devised ‘well-being boxes’ for families, based on heroic women from history to send out a message of hope during that uncertain time.
More recently, as her daughters grew older, she realised the inadequate teaching of young girls about their power, which lies in the fact they can reproduce and give birth. After teaching Hypnobirthing for over a decade she realised a common thread that women didn’t inherently trust their bodies. And so, she started on a mission to help them reclaim their power and that would begin at the first period {menarche} so girls could grow up trusting their bodies. Each subsequent rite of passage (birth, motherhood and menopause) would then be easier. She trained with ‘Celebration Day for Girls’ in 2021 to run period preparation workshops and discovered the Red Tent – an ancient space for girls and women, especially the wise, older women who could pass their knowledge on to the younger females. Basically, the Red Tent, in the times of the Old Testament and in ancient cultures around the world, was an exclusive space for womento gather and share wisdom. They were literally tents inside the camps covered with symbolic red cloth.
‘Magical Menarche’ focuses on ancient wisdom through the eyes of a wise old woman who explains to three young sisters what the sea glass they have found on the beach contains. She sees a young mermaid hiding inside the red piece, afraid because she was unaware of what was happening to her when menarche arrived in her life. The old woman, seeing a grandmother like herself in the blue piece of glass, bemoaned the lost knowledge of the power of the feminine, the lost reverence of the wisdom of the older women and how, with their rediscovery, it would change the world forever.
The old Native American saying has never been better illustrated than in this book ; ‘At menarche, a girl meets her power; through menstruation, she practices her power; at menopause, she becomes her power’.
Beautifully written by Ruth with stunning illustrations by Bethany, the explanation of menarche for young girls, is pure genius. A wonderful contribution to changing our culture’s current perspective of menarche and how it is taught to children.
Indeed, the renowned guru of menstrual education, Jane Hardwicke Collings, has endorsed the book. Sheis a midwife, teacher, writer and menstrual educator, offering workshops internationally on mother and daughter preparation for menstruation, the spiritual practice of menstruation, and the sacred and shamanic dimensions of pregnancy and birth and menopause. Jane founded and runs the international women’s mystery school, The School of Shamanic Womancraft.
She said of Magical Menarche: This beautiful book for young people to explain menarche and the menstrual cycle is so beautiful, so informative and a wonderful contribution to changing our culture’s current perspective. Congratulations to Ruth and Bethany for creating something so special. This book will change the future!
The book, printed and published by Lintons Printers, Crook, costs £8.88 and available from www.ruthsabrosa.com or by calling 07798748828.
