About YouShare

YouShare is an online platform dedicated to sharing youth-friendly, accessible and interesting Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights (SRHR) knowledge.

About Menstrual Musings

Menstrual Musings is a mini zine series by YouShare. Our aim is to create a community space to highlight the many facets of the menstrual cycle.

Menstrual Musings Issue 1: First Periods

Our first issue will be spotlighting the stories, experiences and feelings around first periods. What was your first period like? What do you wish you knew? What would you change? 

You’re welcome to share written or visual submissions about:

• your embarrassing, horror and heart warming stories
• tips or advice
• your first period diary entries 
• what’s in your period kit
• how you celebrated (or commiserated) your first period 

Our theme is all about nostalgia, the quintessential sleepover vibe and messy diaries and scrapbooking. 

If you want to get inspired, check out our moodboard here: Menstrual Musings Moodboard

Submitting to the Menstrual Musings zine

Can I submit?

The submissions are open to anyone who wants to share their stories, thoughts or interpretations around periods and menstrual health.

What can I submit?

We’re open to any visual or written submission. Please keep in mind that Menstrual Musings will be a print publication and is unable to feature audio or video submissions.

We’re specifically looking for personal stories. You don’t need to be a professional or an expert of any sort. We want to highlight authentic takes and experiences about periods and the menstrual cycle.

You can submit content in the following mediums:

• photography
• personal essays
• collages
• poetry
• comics
• illustrations
• journal/diary scans

How should I submit?

You can submit to the zine via this Google Form: Menstrual Musings Submissions Box

The deadline for submissions is September 30th, 2023. 

Please make sure your submissions follow the format outlined below:

Written Submissions

• Max word count for written pieces: 1000 words.
• Send as Google Docs/Word Docs – no PDFS!

Visual Submissions

• Max number of images you can send: 8
• Send as a PNG or JPEG – no PDFS!

We are open to submissions of pre-published work so long as it fits our theme/criteria. However, original work is always preferred.

Do you pay contributors?

We have a small stipend of €30 euro to offer to contributors.

We’re a small publication with a small budget so at the moment we only have this small amount to offer contributors as a token of our gratitude.