Teen Girls Give the Best Dating Advice On This Period Tracking App
My new favorite app is: myPill, a pink- and purple-colored period and birth control pill tracker that costs $4.99 in the app store. I bought it this week on the recommendation of my younger sister, and I’m glad I did. The price is probably not worth it for the main pill reminder feature—just set a regular alarm!—but it pays for itself considering how much good advice from teen girls is on there.
In addition to a pill reminder and a period tracker that lets you use emojis to document your mood swings, myPill has a message board where, once you log in through email or Facebook and create a username, you can ask fellow period-havers questions. It’s like Yahoo! Answers, but all the questions and answers are coming from young women using contraceptives for the first time.
(We blurred the faces and usernames in the following photos because myPill users are, ostensibly, teenagers.)
The majority of questions concern all the doomsday, “what if?” pregnancy scenarios that run through your mind every time your period is over an hour late (or not—maybe you are a “chill” person—I don’t know). “Took yesterday’s pill 10 hours late and now I’m spotting, it’s normal right?” one girl asked yesterday. “Also about 12 days ago I took a pill 12 hours late, could this have anything to do with the spotting? I’m probably going to take a pregnancy test in about a week... so stressed out right now [monkey emoji].”
To be honest, IDK if that’s normal. Could be? Kinda getting freaked out about this? Good thing another girl had an answer: “It’s okay, but yeah the spotting can be attributed to that.”
We feel better now.
This kind of soothing advice is not limited to pregnancy scares. Got boyfriend troubles? Your myPill friends know what to do.
Ditto about weird sex things.
You can even ask the myPill boards for job advice.
Or make (perhaps futile) customer service complaints.
At its core, however, myPill is about commiseration.
I hope this app does not get sued for providing sketchy medical advice to potential minors, because its real function is clear. Engaging in this kind of communal catharsis, for teen girls, is necessary. Sure, you could write about your pregnancy fears in a diary or a YouTube comment or on Reddit (lol—JK), but what’s a better sanctuary than a pay-to-play period tracking app? Parents will never find you on there.
Also: I can’t stop reading it!
