PoGo gets a facelift!

"It's not only people who hanker after a facelift", I thought to myself this morning as I spied a wrinkle in the mirror. Websites need them too occasionally, so I am thrilled to be relaunching PoGo's website in a fresh, clean style, with lots more features that will be of benefit to girls and parents alike.

A learning journey
It's been quite a journey in the last three years - not just as a business but for our family too. (You can read About Us if you want to know the details.) What's become clearer to me since starting PoGo and talking to many mums, school nurses and teachers, is the need for girls to be prepared for their first period at the earliest possible age. Whilst the average age for girls starting their periods is still around 12, more and more are starting much earlier. One-in-eight girls now starts her periods at primary school - and that's the government's own figures.

A natural reaction
The usual, and quite understandable, response when I share that information with parents is outright shock. Yes, it is shocking, but it's also a fact of life that parents need to be aware of and take action on.

What's wrong with periods?
The single most common response when I show women the PoGo Pack™ is, "I wish I'd had one of those when I started!" Our mothers may not have always been brilliant at enlightening us about the changes and challenges of puberty, but we are a more informed generation. So why is there still so much discomfort around the subject of periods? For goodness sake, there seems to be more information available about STIs than periods! That can't be right.

Give it to them straight
We have a responsibility to our young girls to cast off our own embarrassment (if any) and have a calm, open conversation about puberty and everything else that entails. Children are sponges for information. If we present girls with the information in a matter-of-fact way, they will deal with the issues in a matter-of-fact way.

I've always believed that if a child is old enough to ask the question (whatever that question may be), they're old enough to receive a sensible answer that is suitable for their level of understanding and maturity.

Our ethos
So that's what has been the driving force behind PoGo's new website: providing girls with information that is sensible and age-appropriate. Of course, the information on our website will suit different girls and different ages and stages, but we've written it with the 8-14 age group in mind, and girls who are yet to get their first period.

I therefore urge parents to register to check out the Periods section in the Girls' pages and decide for themselves. It's been crucial for us to spend a lot of time looking into the protection of children's information on the website, and the registration process is a necessary step for the time being (see Using this site).

When you've had a chance to look around, I hope you'll agree that we've created a great area for girls.

Work in progress
There's a lot of new material coming soon for the Puberty section, and we have other ideas in the pipeline that we hope will be helpful for girls and parents alike.

We're working already on making the approval of registered users much quicker, but the major facelift is a pretty good start. There's just a hint of a wrinkle now that needs ironing out ... on the website that is, not me. I've earned my wrinkles.