The Binti Podcast
Do you SMELL me?
Welcome to the Ben T. Podcast, where we discuss the journey of being a daughter. I'm G. And I'm Noni. We are looking forward to going on this journey with you. Today's podcast is about... Smells. So, Noni, how would you describe your personal smell? This sounds weird, but like old foods, sort of. Like stuff this in the refrigerator? Yeah. How many days old? Well, here. I think that my smell smells like old food, but once it's he and up. Well, the good thing for us is you are vegan, so whatever food is going bad, it leads us vegetables. Yeah. Well, here's the thing. As we mature, we start to have a smell. The reality is we've always had a smell. But as we go through puberty, our hormones make our smell more pronounced. And so, do you remember the first time you knew you had a smell? I don't, because I think that you were the one that you smelled to love me. Well, that's usually what happens. The mama's usually smell it, and the Ben T's are like, "What?" So when I said, "Hey, you might need some deodorant. What did you say? What did you think? What did you feel?" I was like, "Oh my God. Oh my God. I'm gonna get deodorant. I'm gonna be like an older girl." Yeah. I think a lot of Ben T's have that reaction, right? Because you've seen the older women in your life putting on deodorant. You might not even know what it is. Yeah. But then when you started getting deodorant, putting on deodorant, how did you feel about it? The first thing I had was called crystal something. I didn't like it, because you have to put it under the water, and then you put it on, and just like that wet feeling I did not like, then I had this other deodorant. It was like the normal kind, the kind that most people have. I really like the smell of it, because it's like coconut and lavender. I thought that that smelled awesome. But my armpits just like suddenly broke out. They were like a bomb, like all over my armpits. It helps, you had it who helps everywhere. And part of that is because our hormones are changing, but there are other parts of our body that are the same. And one thing that's been the same for you since you were born is you have eczema, right? You experience eczema. So the combination of chemicals of your hormones, the sweat, the bacteria, and that first deodorant, or that second deodorant, they did not go together well. And it was pretty bad. We had to go to the dermatologist. Yeah. Yeah. And then they told me to get another deodorant. And how did that deodorant work out for you? I absolutely hate it. Okay. You know what? Hey, it's a very strong word. But I really, really, really did not like it. Why didn't you like it? It was like gooey. It was sort of like not like cream, but like gel, like hair gel. Yeah. It was like hair gel, but it was going under your arm. Yeah. It was like the sticky filling after putting it on. I just hated it so bad. Well, let me tell you how I discovered you didn't like it. I started smelling you again. I said, what is going on? Yeah. I went and put it on. Yes. Noni was telling me that she was putting it on, but she wasn't putting it on because she didn't like the feel. And so we had to go on a journey of finding a deodorant that you liked. And before we went on that journey, we started doing a few things, right? We made deodorant together with our rights of passage group. And that was cool. And that was out of very basic products. We made deodorant and we'll put the list for that deal, that recipe on the page as well. That was actually before my skin starts to break out, actually. It was. I really liked that too. It's not really good. So we might go back to it. It was very simple. It was coconut oil and some other, maybe some shea butter, maybe a essence or two. Yeah. I had peppermint or what's it called? Lemon grass. Yeah. It was one of those two. So now you've been using a deodorant. It's working. You like the smell and you like the feel, right? But smells are such a huge part of how we start out our process with puberty, right? It's one of the first signs where we learn that something is changing and it's a combination of things that smell, right? It's the sweat, which is so important. It's so important that we sweat. So we don't want to ever be embarrassed about that because that means the toxins in our body are coming out, right? Yeah. But there's also bacteria, right? And so that one time when we had such a horrible experience, we had to, we put lemon on your underarm to kind of kill off some of the bacteria. Well, Harriet, when we think about puberty smells, we often think about smells from our underarms. But are there any other smells you've noticed in puberty? Yes. Okay. If you didn't know this, there's something called discharge. I'm not really sure if it's supposed to smell, but I know that sometimes it can. And it sort of smells, well, here, from my experience of it, it smells like how your armpits smell. Okay. It sounds like the sweat from your armpits a little bit, not like totally, but yeah. That makes sense because your vaginal area, so the vulva and all the area around your vagina, sweats as well. You start to grow hair on your pubis, which is the outside area around your vulva and your lips. And so you start to sweat. That makes sense that that would smell like your underarms. It's the same kind of area, but you're absolutely right. When you have discharge, it's really not supposed to smell. Yeah. It's supposed to smell like how water should smell. Yeah. You don't know it until you experience it, but it just smells like clear and fresh. Yeah. It should smell kind of natural. It doesn't mean there's something, a smell you want to smell all the time, but you know it's like a natural smell. But if it starts to have other kinds of smells, then that means we get check in with our mama, right? Binties, check in with your mama. If your smell starts going towards maybe like a fishy smell or starts to smell like this rotten food, but not vegan rotten food meat. All right, well, there's so many things to think about with smells. And sometimes not everyone is excited when they smell. So for those mamas out there who are maybe nervous when their binties start to smell, what kind of advice would you give them or maybe some binties who are nervous when they start to smell? What would you say to them? What experience is it? So you don't have to be like embarrassed or insecure, bad, I guess. I for one often feel, well, I don't really talk to all of my sisters and girls and in time of my community about puberty and that sort of stuff because I just feel like it's weird. But then I have to remind myself that everybody goes through it. So you have the right to feel awkward at times, but other times I think you'd have to remind yourself that everybody goes through it. So it's not like it's wrong or something's wrong. It's just... A part of growing up? Yeah. Yeah. It's a part of the cycle and it's a part of this passage that we're all going through. And so I think you're absolutely right to remind other binties, but also to remind all other mamas that everyone's growing up and everyone smells and all of those smells are beautiful actually. We're grateful for the capacity to smell with our nose and our senses, but we're also grateful that our body is excreting a smell to give us signs about what's going on inside. Right? It's kind of a barometer to let us know how things are going inside of us. And so next podcast, we'll talk about some of those things that are going inside of us that can change our smells. All right? Okay. Oh, and before we leave, I just want to say one thing. You should feel awkward about your smells, just... I went just like wake up and then that pounds the other way. Yes. Make sure you bathe. Yeah. Make sure you bathe. Make sure you dry it off and then make sure that you add that deodorant or whatever makes you feel good about your smell, right? Sometimes I think that I don't have enough deodorant when I sweat, but you guys remember that deodorant doesn't stop the sweating. It covers up the smell from the sweat. That's absolutely right, because we don't use deodorant with aluminum. So for some people, their deodorant may stop the sweat and it may stop the smell, but we use natural deodorant, so you're going to keep sweating because we want those toxins that come out of your body that just not going to smell as bad when they come out. Yeah. I really enjoyed this podcast about smells. How did you feel about it? I really enjoyed it. I think that this is my favorite so far. Really no need? Yeah. Well, I'm G. And I'm Noni. And this is the Binti Podcast.