Even though it’s Jewishly-founded, the period startup HelloFlo first marketed itself as “Santa for your vagina,” earning praise for its funny, no-frills approach to menstruation. But four years after the release of the company’s viral video “The Camp Gyno” (filmed at Jewish sleep-away camp Surprise Lake), it’s even harder to tell the difference between the advertising and the advocacy. Instead of selling its monthly care packages, HelloFlo’s website now offers content designed to “educate, inspire, and entertain.” The bright colors and uplifting headlines are corporate feminism at its finest, with only a Kotex sponsorship to give it away.

HelloFlo’s creator, Naama Bloom, the daughter of Israeli parents based in Brooklyn, has moved on to brand management at Zulily, but she’s found a new way to monetize menstruation: HelloFlo: The Guide, Period. Co-written with journalist Glynnis MacNicol, Bloom’s book discusses puberty with the frankness that made HelloFlo famous. In nine chapters, it provides in-depth information on pubic hair, brain and breast development, and periods, along with earnest asides such as “I feel most confident when I stop worrying about what other people want me to be or look like.”

While Bloom’s refusal to body-shame is admirable, her cheerful tone can’t conceal the guide’s consumerist bent. My review copy was delivered with free pads, and the section on periods encourages readers to “take a stroll down the feminine care aisle in a drugstore or supermarket.” Likewise, the two chapters on hair removal seem excessive, as if deciding between waxing and shaving were as important as self-administering breast exams.

Bloom’s commercialism is particularly disappointing in light of the book’s oversights. Although she’s targeting teenage girls, she never mentions birth control or masturbation, topics that are arguably far more taboo than periods. She also implies that menstruation is a necessary evil, one that unites young women with “Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Emma Watson, Malala, and every female Olympian.” Recent science suggests quite the opposite: not only it is possible to stop your period through contraception, it may even be preferable. (Personally, I’m delighted to no longer be dealing with what HelloFlo calls the “Red Badge of Courage.”)

So if you’re searching for a puberty guide that touches on “everything that’s useful,” as Bloom claims, look elsewhere. HelloFlo’s latest release has moments of genuine humor, but it’s neither all-inclusive nor as transparent as its author insists.

Photo of Naama Bloom by Sam Khan

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The geniuses behind Hello Flo‘s beloved, viral ad campaign of 2013 are back with a sequel—of sorts. In the hilarious new video, a precocious pre-teen who’s waiting anxiously for her first period decides to fake it till she makes it—literally!—by painting glittery red nail polish on a sanitary pad and hoping it passes for the real deal. Upon discovering the deception, her Mom decides to go along with the ruse and throw her a mortifying “First Moon Party,” replete with menses-themed takes on traditional party games, like “bobbing-for-ovaries” (grandpa loves it) and “pin-the-pad-on-the-period.”

So, what’s this all about? Selling period paraphernalia, essentially: Hello Flo is a service that sends you monthly packages filled with tampons, pads and candy, right when you’re due for your period. It’s Birchbox for your vagina. And sure, you can probably buy most of Hello Flo’s products way cheaper at the drugstore, but CEO Naama Bloom knows that there’s nothing people like more than snail mail, candy, and viral videos—especially when they’ve got cramps.

Just remember, wannabe menarche mermaids: “Periods don’t have glitter in them.”

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In a new commercial for HelloFlo—a service that sends you monthly packages filled with tampons and pads and candy (oh my!)—a sassy girl at camp is the first to get her period. She proceeds to take on the role of Camp Gyno, teaching the other girls about their periods as each receives her “red badge of courage.”

Our protagonist is quite bossy (“I’m like a counselor now,” she explains), and, more importantly, refreshing. Rather than most tampon commercials, which feature long-legged women wading happily in tranquil ocean waters, with no mention of what’s really going down, this ad is serious. Camp Gyno scoffs at weakness. Cramps getting you down? “Suck it up and deal with it,” she demands.

But her dictatorial position is toppled when the girls discover HelloFlo, and her services are soon replaced by the company’s monthly care packages timed to individual cycles.

Clearly, HelloFlo founder and CEO Naama Bloom went to summer camp. In a March interview with The Verge, Bloom described her path to founding HelloFlo:

“Basically, every woman I spoke to was like, ‘oh my God, that’s fucking brilliant,'” Bloom said. “No one actually enjoys the experience of buying tampons.”

Alas, if you like your sanitary napkins generic, this is not for you. HelloFlo packages provide Tampax Pearl and Always products. For $14 to $18 dollars a month, though, you can sit back, eat candy, and enjoy your brand-name period swag in style.

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