Teenage boy tells men to carry tampons to help out their girlfriends in viral Instagram post

He said that real men help out their friends

Jose Garcia, who has been praised for pledging to carry sanitary towels in case his friends are in need (falloutbooy99)

An American teenager has been praised for sharing a selfie of him clutching sanitary pads on Instagram, and urging boys to carry towels and tampons in case girls are caught short.

15-year-old Jose Garcia, who has 16,000 followers, challenged “every boy that follows me and calls himself a man or simply a good human being” to take “a couple pads or tamps to school to help our girl friends.”

He argued that while boys don’t deal with menstruation, they should be aware that periods can “just hits them [girls] without notice” and it can be tricky finding sanitary products.

“We should support them with this, after all, we don't have to go through all they do because of menstruation, so it's just logical that we help them," he writes.

The post accompanied by #realmensupportwomen has since been liked over 20,000 times.

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Girls touched by his gesture of solidarity have tweeted their thanks to Garcia.

But Garcia has also been forced to defend himself against those who don't share his view, and sarcastically responded "of course" to one of his detractors.

Garcia told the Daily Dot that he posted the photo to help women break down the taboos around menstruation, which should be regarded as "natural thing".

"I believe that asking for a pad or a tampon shouldn’t be such a taboo thing to boys. It’s a natural thing that happens to women," he said.