So last weekend I started my first period. A few weeks before I got invited to my friend's birthday party and it was a hot tub. So obviously my period had to start and my mum went away the weekend I had to go. So before I went I told the girl who's birthday it was that I couldn't go in the hot tub because I was on my period. She was super supportive and said it didn't matter and of course I could still come anyway. So when I got there it was all fine, the girl told me that I could. Just sit at the side and it didn't matter. Obviously I felt left out and awkward but they all pretended nothing was happening, but then this girl's best friend who I'm meant to be friends with was pressuring me to get into my swimming costume and I kept telling her I couldn't and I didn't want to. So my best friend who was also there said that I could wear her shorts over my swimming costume because I think she understood my situation and could tell I wasn't comfortable with this girls pressure. So I ended up keeping my underwear on under my swimming costume because I still needed to wear my pad. So then when I came back out our other friend had arrived and she was inner period too. But she was wearing a tampon because she started her periods a bit earlier than me and was comfortable with using them. We were the only two girls who had actually gotten their periods within our friendship group. So then this girl who pressured me to get in my swimming costume was then calling me fat and heavy and also then started shaming me for not wearing a tampon. I explained it was my first period and I didn't want to use one yet but she just kept telling me to put one in. This continued for a while and I felt so uncomfortable that I just wanted to go home. The other girls were being fine but weren't doing all that much to help me out. This same girl then told me to take my pad off and get in and kept saying, "It's not likely to happen." As in I wasn't likely to bleed in the hot tub. I had to go into detail that I didn't want to go into as I had to explain I can't just hold the blood in like a wee. 😳 she kept pressuring me to come in over and over again until we all got out and ate food but then she also said just get in and we don't mind if there is a bit of blood in. Saying this without even considering that her best friend is highly sensitive towards blood (the brithday girl) as she once actually fainted in science class when watching a simple animation about periods (sex ed) I was getting really annoyed at this point and said you might not care but I do care if blood from my Hooha is all over the hot tub and I'm sure everybody else would care too. In the end I just got super pissed off at her and she was annoying for the rest of the party constantly complaining about other people and crying because her eye was a little itchy. Should I start wearing tampons? And when is the right time to?