Talking about periods, pooping, and puberty can be awkward. In fact, just listing those three words together kind of makes me cringe. But uncomfortable, cringe-worthy, and “awk” topics are some the most important issues facing the planet, and society needs to talk about them.
Girls and women need open discussions on how to manage “that time of the month” in every community around the world.
And the 1 billion people still practicing open defecation need all 7 billion people on the planet to raise awareness of the importance of clean water, sanitation, and handwashing.
There are other topics that are difficult to talk about, such as war, death, and why climate change matters.
But guess what? There’s creative individuals who have come up with stories to explain each of these seemingly embarrassing, emotional, and just plain difficult-to-convey issues.
How did they do it? By creating children’s books! What better way to address these topics than at an early age?
Here are some of my favorite children’s book to explain the topics too taboo to openly discuss in society.
1. Pooping: “Everybody Poops” by Taro Gomi
Pooping is something everybody does but not everybody talks about. That’s part of the reason issues like clean water and sanitation are not always on the agenda when it comes to talking about sustainable development. So to ensure everybody is talking about issues like Global Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation, why not share fun stories like “Everybody Poops?”
This book is colorful, creative and gets right to the point. Starting out with animals’ poop--did you know camels with one hump poop once and camels with two humps poop twice? Just kidding, that’s not a “hard fact” but “Everybody Poops” does provide some guidance on bringing up the hard-to-talk-about subject of health, bodily functions, and can segway to further discussions on water and sanitation.
Side note: Libraries seem to be disappearing as ebooks and Amazon become more accessible, (which I’m sure the tree in “The Giving Tree” is happy about, but not everyone) so if you have trouble finding a book you can always check out YouTube reading like this one.
2. Periods and religion: “Are you there god? It’s me, Margaret” by Judy Blume
For some reason religion and periods seem to be tied together in literature and in life. Maybe it’s because periods facilitate creating and bringing new life into the world, which is pretty miraculous. In this young adult book, a girl in 6th grade struggles with balancing religion in her family with adolescence. The main character, Margaret deals with getting her period, buying a bra, liking boys, managing her period by learning how to use a sanitary napkin and a whole bunch of other super awkward things that still need more open dialogue in the world.
Bonus: Ok, not a kid’s book but this book goes into the importance of community for women during their periods and is one of my favorites when it comes to period books. “The Red Tent” by Anita Diamant is also all about religion and periods. It tells the behind the scenes story (fictional but based on a minor character in the Bible) of women who live in a separate tent during menstrual cycles... You know to keep the whole period thing all taboo and mysterious. But this book talks about all those awkward topics like women bleeding, emotions, childbirth, and banishment from community during periods.
3. Climate change: “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein
As a child OR adult, it can be hard to understand the bigger impact of humans’ actions. One person taking leaves, or apples from a tree doesn’t seem like a big deal. But this book reveals a relationship between a tree and a boy, which depicts the not-so-giving nature of the boy and the impact that taking from nature has on the planet. The visualization of cutting down such a compassionate caring tree is extremely powerful and acts as a great tool to talk about taking action on climate change.
Not so fun fact: Did you know it takes 75,000 trees to print the Sunday edition of the New York Times?
Fun fact: Recycling one ton of paper can save 17 trees, 600 gallons of oil, and 26,000 gallons of water. “The Giving Tree” can be a reminder to reduce, reuse, and recycle and tackle Global Goal 13. Plus, Arianna Huffington loves this book. Check out her read aloud in the YouTube video below.
Shout out to “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss, too.
4. War and conflict: “The Butter Battle Book” by Dr. Seuss
My colleague Nicki recommended this book. And I agree, a Dr. Seuss book definitely needs to be on this list. “The Butter Battle Book” was written and published in 1984 and specifically addresses war, conflict and the arms race—which was taking place between countries involved in the Cold War at the time. It’s a lot easier to talk about war and the possibility of the planet’s destruction when nuclear war is on the table when it’s about the “Yooks” and the “Zooks” fighting over how to eat toast in the morning.
5. Food waste: “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle
Admitting that you contribute to the 1.3 billion tons of food waste produced in the world each year is uncomfortable. This one may not be what Carle had in mind after writing “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” But, taking a second look at this book, I think it can be a lead-in to talk about food waste. I mean did you see how much food the caterpillar wasted? The caterpillar only takes one bite out of 26 different foods! That’s a very wasteful caterpillar, if you ask me. True, the caterpillar transforms into a beautiful butterfly, but more caterpillars could become butterflies if he had shared some of that food.
Because there are 795 million very hungry humans in the world I’m suggesting this book to bring up issues on food waste, food aid reform and the need for redistribution of food across the world.
6. Diet: “Eating the Alphabet” by Lois Elhert
Diet habits can be a tricky subject. Obesity, overeating, anorexia, malnourishment and others are hard to talk about. Having a healthy balanced diet is a challenge as well. This book lists options for healthy veggies and fruits which can be part of a nutritious diet. I also think it can be a platform to talk about the importance of diversity in food production and consumption. Plus, the kid reading this book in the YouTube video below sounds adorable.
7. Sexual education: “It’s Perfectly Normal” by Robie H. Harris
What is the ultimate of awkward topics? Sex. More specifically, sexual education. In my opinion, it’s one of the most socially uncomfortable situations for adolescents to encounter in school and to go through in life. And having no information on what’s happening makes it that much more weird. It doesn’t help that schools in the US vary on what to teach, when, and who should teach all about the birds the bees and everything in between when it comes to sexual education. And for parents this is an extremely sensitive subject too.
This book, “It’s Perfectly Normal” is controversial. According to NPR it’s frequently banned in schools. But sex ed should start at a younger age because puberty is occurring at an earlier age in Europe and the US. And a study from the CDC shows most young adults in the US are sexually active before they hear about sex ed in school. However, schools and countries around the world are changing policies on sex ed. Check out this list of five countries making some major shifts in the way they teach sex ed.
Quality comprehensive sex ed can decrease infant mortality rates, unplanned pregnancies, reduce overpopulation, promote better relationships and gender equality, according to UNESCO and UNFPA. So maybe busting some myths, such as that the stork does not drop a baby off on the doorstep, isn’t such a bad place to start.
Sometimes it’s true, there’s a time and a place to talk about awkward things. But if you don’t find that time and place it’s easy to ignore issues like gender equality, poverty, climate change and more. Pushing aside topics because they are uncomfortable to discuss in society is no way to create positive progress on issues that are oppressing women and keeping over 10 percent of the world’s population in extreme poverty. So I encourage you to take the time and explore every way you know to raise awareness on all global issues, awkward or not. Let’s address that “awkward turtle” or “awkward elephant” in the room even just by reading kids books. Because it’s going to take everyone to make the Global Goals happen by 2030, kids included.
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