ISSUE ONE:
FIRST THINGS FIRST
We are so excited to introduce you to the 11 Seconds Magazine's DEBUT Issue, First Things First. In this issue, we dive deep into PCOS, periods, visits to the gynecologist, childbirth, love, sex, and even what it’s like to question the healthcare system head on. What does it mean to all of us that our firsts are remembered, recorded, and perhaps even revered?
You can now read it as a digital flipbook or as a series of articles below!
Free the Flow
Do I suck it up and go to work like I always have, or do I listen to my body and take the day off? For years, I had struggled with this decision, dreading the prospect of having to explain my absence to my boss and colleagues. But on this particular day, something shifted inside me.
Name the Pain
Eventually, the pain became unbearable. My friends forced me to call my GP. They warned me, urged me to research my symptoms and provide the doctor a list of potential ailments upon arrival, otherwise they wouldn’t take me seriously, especially if he were male. So, I turned to google. Was it PCOS? Cervical cancer? A burst ovarian cyst? Was I dying? What if I just had a low pain threshold? Was it normal? Am I being dramatic like my dad said? I spent 25% of the next ten years in excruciating pain, wondering what was wrong with me.
medical mysteries of menses
i take a pill to shrink it / next year, no change / next next year, gone
Licking Ignored Wounds
Throughout the process of surgery and treatment, I soon realized how broken the healthcare system is especially for immigrants. Despite the fact my mother was an educated woman and fluent in English, the providers preferred talking to me, a twelve-year-old, because my English was accentless. The lack of respect and continuous dismissal of my mother’s voice and story resulted in the disaster of finding a fibroid years later.
Humanizing Anne Frank: Discovering Hope through the Joy of your Period
Getting her period signifies all these expectations and the realization that you are growing up, even if she wasn't necessarily wishing for the shedding of her uterine lining, but for the world that would emerge from the transition of childhood to adulthood. These are all the wants, desires and expectations I think many of us can relate with our transition into adulthood. Granted, I believe she has achieved so much more than I may have at 25. I still haven’t found a lot of the things she was looking for - a steady idea of my career, romantic love in any tangible form, and a confidence in what I want out of life, other than knowing I love to act, and I haven’t even begun to answer how I can do it without starving.