Submitted by: Janee Moore

“Our Bodies, Ourselves” means being empowered to make decisions about my own body. To have a tool at my fingertips that allows me to help myself and other women make healthy decisions while loving our bodies.

Do you remember when you first read “Our Bodies, Ourselves”? Take part in OBOS’s 40th anniversary by sharing how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” made a difference in your life. View more stories and submit your own.

Submitted by: Maraina Hirut Montgomery

OBOS is simply a wonderful resource for women around the nation. The stories, advice and inspiration that each issue possesses speaks to me in just the right language and urge me to take accountability and to get active!

Do you remember when you first read “Our Bodies, Ourselves”? Take part in OBOS’s 40th anniversary by sharing how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” made a difference in your life. View more stories and submit your own.

Submitted by: Morissa Rice

OBOS is a great avenue to provide timely information to women about their overall health and how we should take care of our bodies. I believe in promoting physical, spiritual, and emotional health.

Do you remember when you first read “Our Bodies, Ourselves”? Take part in OBOS’s 40th anniversary by sharing how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” made a difference in your life. View more stories and submit your own.

Submitted by: Vanessa Antrum

OBOS means information to me. Years ago, I remember purchasing the book that finally answered so many questions for me I couldn’t believe it. I brought one for my friends because I wanted them to have the same knowledge base of questions we dare not ask others.

Do you remember when you first read “Our Bodies, Ourselves”? Take part in OBOS’s 40th anniversary by sharing how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” made a difference in your life. View more stories and submit your own.

Submitted by: Denise Larocque

I think this book is an amazing resource to have, as an Aboriginal Traditional Midwife in progress I have opened it many times. As for personal use I felt relieved when I could read about lesbian issues and menopause questions.I looked up contraceptive pros and cons and find its content helpful in empowering women to take the first step in their own health, because it is their bodies, and so it’s only proper that they know it best.

Do you remember when you first read “Our Bodies, Ourselves”? Take part in OBOS’s 40th anniversary by sharing how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” made a difference in your life. View more stories and submit your own.

Submitted by:  Emily Frost-Leaird

I use OBOS in my community college women’s health class and I continue to be amazed by how inspiring and meaningful the text is to the students. Thank you for 40 years of making a difference in womens’ lives!

Do you remember when you first read “Our Bodies, Ourselves”? Take part in OBOS’s 40th anniversary by sharing how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” made a difference in your life. View more stories and submit your own.

Submitted by: Heather Reiners

“Our Bodies, Ourselves” means empowerment, learning honestly about my body and knowledge to make decisions that are meaningful to me. As a women’s studies major just graduating this May OBOS has supporting my life’s mission in bringing education to girls and women on not only their bodies, but their ’body, mind, and soul’!

Do you remember when you first read “Our Bodies, Ourselves”? Take part in OBOS’s 40th anniversary by sharing how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” made a difference in your life. View more stories and submit your own.

Submitted by: Molly

When I think of OBOS, I think, Empowerment! OBOS means knowing your body, your personal power, and taking control of your health care and your reproductive rights. OBOS is an essential voice for women.

Do you remember when you first read “Our Bodies, Ourselves”? Take part in OBOS’s 40th anniversary by sharing how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” made a difference in your life. View more stories and submit your own.

Submitted by: Sarah Whedon

I really want to have a great story to tell about how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” provided personal health information at a moment when I desperately needed it. But it wasn’t really like that for me. The book was more like a steady companion in my adolescence. I kept it handy as a personal reference work and even lugged it off to college with me. I benefitted from it having been first published before I was even born.

When I think about “Our Bodies, Ourselves” what comes to mind most quickly and forcefully is the brief time I spent volunteering in the office. I took an introductory women’s studies course in college which involved a service learning component and I chose Our Bodies Ourselves to work with.

When you volunteer anywhere for a brief time, you rarely get to do anything glamorous, and my experience was no different. I stuffed envelopes. I think one time Judy Norsigian gave me an article to bring home so I could tell her what I thought of it. I don’t even remember the topic.

But the experience of volunteering made a big impression on me anyway. I think that’s because being in that office showed me in material form that it was entirely possible to care about women’s health and then start doing something about it and so create something that really mattered.

Volunteering at the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective was the first real action I took on behalf of women’s health. Now I have training as a birth doula, a graduate education in Women’s Studies, and a blog called Reproductive Rites.

Who knows what the future holds? Thank you, Our Bodies Ourselves.

Do you remember when you first read “Our Bodies, Ourselves”? Take part in OBOS’s 40th anniversary by sharing how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” made a difference in your life. View more stories and submit your own.

Submitted by: Meg Sawicki

The first time I saw “Our Bodies, Ourselves” was in 1977 and I was a freshman in college. Some women I knew had the book and I remember thinking how fantastic it was that a group of women had written a collection of stories that shared their own wisdom about health and life and being a woman. For the first time I was affirmed that different was okay, and I was hooked.

To this day the book remains one of my favorite gifts to give young women who I love and care about, including my own daughters. I have only love and admiration for those first brave women of the Boston Women’s Health Collective who gave us real and important information about our health and happiness, and who set the bar for other women’s self discovery books as the first of it’s kind. Cheers and all good things to my sisters of the Collective to continue to light the way.

Do you remember when you first read “Our Bodies, Ourselves”? Take part in OBOS’s 40th anniversary by sharing how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” made a difference in your life. View more stories and submit your own.

Submitted by: Debbie Ali

I read and re-read the first copy on recycled newsprint in 1970; loved it when it came out bigger with more info. It was the guide to my learning about my body, and I have proudly shared it with many young women I have known over the years. I look forward to sharing it with my grand daughters and great nieces!

Do you remember when you first read “Our Bodies, Ourselves”? Take part in OBOS’s 40th anniversary by sharing how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” made a difference in your life. View more stories and submit your own.

Submitted by: Michele Hamilton

I remember reading OBOS in 1980. My friends and I held a meeting and took turns examining our own vaginas. I remember thinking how pink it looked!

Do you remember when you first read “Our Bodies, Ourselves”? Take part in OBOS’s 40th anniversary by sharing how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” made a difference in your life. View more stories and submit your own.

Submitted by: Joanne Accardi-Goldberger

When I was a college girl in the early 70’s, I didn’t know much about my body. Then came OBOS… it empowered me… my friends… my entire generation! Thoughts, questions we had been taught to suppress could now be discussed openly. Thank you OBOS for helping me get in touch not only with myself, but for becoming a life-time proponent for women’s health concerns. BTW: When my daughter turned 13, I gave her first copy of OBOS… may the tradition continue! Happy 40th Birthday!

Do you remember when you first read “Our Bodies, Ourselves”? Take part in OBOS’s 40th anniversary by sharing how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” made a difference in your life. View more stories and submit your own.

Submitted by: Cat Grant

I found this book when I was about 20. It politicized me about my body and other women’s bodies — in reading it I realized that our bodies weren’t “private.” I found it just as I was changing my position on women’s right to choose – moving away from a pro-life position to a position where women had the right to control their bodies.  I bought one in a second hand shop and passed it on to a younger woman and hopefully she passed it on too. A new edition is well needed for a new generation for girls and women.  All mothers, aunties, grandmothers should give this to their daughters, granddaughters and nieces.  All women around the world should have this book — and it wouldn’t hurt the men to read it either!

Do you remember when you first read “Our Bodies, Ourselves”? Take part in OBOS’s 40th anniversary by sharing how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” made a difference in your life. View more stories and submit your own.

Submitted by: Cheryl de Jong-Lambert

The thought of OBOS immediately brings to mind so many excellent conversations with girlfriends the world over. Today, the ”Pregnancy and Birth” volume in particular means having a son named after my husband’s maternal family, and a daughter named after my grandmother.

Do you remember when you first read “Our Bodies, Ourselves”? Take part in OBOS’s 40th anniversary by sharing how “Our Bodies, Ourselves” made a difference in your life. View more stories and submit your own.