This blog is dedicated to some amazing women who are breaking the taboos around periods in their own unique ways ❤️

We have women talking about taboos and smashing shame, women who are fighting to end period poverty and women who campaign for us to use the right language to represent menstruation positively.

So for our International Women’s Day we are paying tribute to some of these amazing people who have contributed to raising the profile of menstruation as a topic in the media, press and with the general public.

Let’s start with the youngest but boldest. 

Amika George

Amika George, a girl on  mission, just 18 years old and founder of an organisation called #freeperiod. She started the campaign in April 2017 when she found out that many young girls in the UK cannot afford menstrual products. She took action and lead one of the biggest peaceful menstrual protests called #free period which took place on the December 20th 2017, calling for Prime Minister Theresa May to provide free menstrual products for girls who have free school meals. She says "No girl should be faced with the indignity and constant stress of knowing she’s bled over her uniform in front of her class because she can only afford one tampon or pad, or worse still, no tampon or pad. These girls lag behind in their education because of sustained gaps in their learning, and never achieve their goals.” You can read her full interview here: 

Gabby Edlin

Our next amazing women is Gabby Edlin, a woman on mission to end the period poverty and helping refugee have a bloody good period. She is the founder of Bloody Good Period, a charity that collects donations of sanitary products, as well as other toiletries – shower gel, wet wipes etc and gives them out to refugee women at two asylum-seeker drop-offs in north London. 

Read how her work is changing attitude to menstrual product and helping girls and women in need and cannot afford to menstrual product.

Read more here 

Chella Quint

Our next special woman who has made a really positive impact on the world is the founder of PeriodPositive, Chella Quint. Chella, is a comedian, producer, designer, artist, presenter and education researcher from Brooklyn, New York who now lives in Sheffield, England. She is super famous for her Bloody Staines (TM). 

She advocates and promotes shame-free menstruation talk, and break the cycle of secrecy, fear and misinformation about menstruation. 

They says “We need to seriously question the messages and the messengers using words like ‘whisper’, ‘discreet’, ‘secret’ and ‘hidden’ when talking about periods, because it discourages people talking about and getting support for reproductive health issues.”

I was lucky enough to attend one of her education training programs on menstrual education session. Find more about the organisation and the teaching resources here

Manjit K Gill

We would like to thank Manjit Gill and her charity Binti, dignity period who are smashing the taboos around period not just in UK but all around the world. Binti is on a mission to provide menstrual dignity to all girls, all over the world. They do this by facilitating access to pads to ensure menstrual hygiene, educating girls about what menstruation is and what they can expect from it, and dispelling stigma, taboos, myths and negative perceptions around menstruation. You can read about Manjit more here

Paula Sherriff MP

Last but not least, Paula has been an outspoken campaigner on the behalf of everyone experience period poverty. On budget day she wrote a blog about why it's so important that the Chancellor acts to eradicate period poverty. Read the full article here 

Thankyou to these five heroes and to all women on International Women's Day for their contribution to our world. 💜