to think teen girls should be allowed to wear skirts for ballet?

[Mmmmcoffee]

My 11yo dd goes to a tap and ballet class, and has just had a letter home to say that although the leotard/skirt combination they currently wear is still fine for the classes, when they take their ballet exam they have to wear just the leotard and tights, so the examiner can see their legs.

My dd will be seeing AF within a couple of years. Her best friend already does. If they don't wear tampons its going to be glaringly obvious that they are having their AF, and if they're at all self-conscious you can forget them doing well in the exams.

Agree if you use an ultrathin towel without wings it should be fine under leotard.

Leotards are very revealing BoF. When my girls did gym they weren't allowed to wear knickers under theirs. They do wear them under their dance leotards, but I can't see how they could wear a towel - you wouldn't be able to dance properly for worrying it would show.

YABU. All the dancers I know where tampons.

I'm 48 and did ballet many years ago until I was 17. I always wore a leotard - never occured to me otherwise and I always knew that for exams I would have to wear a leotard. It was no big deal. Maybe I never thought it was, 'cis my mum never suggested to me that it was anytihng to worry about.

IIRC (it was a long time ago! ), I was about 12 when my periods started. I think I laternated between towels and tampons until I got comfortable with tampons. Althugh I never had to deal with sanitary belts and loops like Shoshe did, the towle were quite bulky then. However, even then, I found it possible to ensure that I placed it carefully enough that it wasn't obvious - although, again, IIRC, I was conscious of it from a movement perspective - and worried that it might move - which is why I ultimately preferred tampons.

I would have been far more embarrassed to go into an exam - even if they let you - wearing shorts, as that would make it obvious to everyone that I was in the middle of my period