If you're wondering what all the menstrual movement hype is about, it's time you learn from nadyaokamoto herself: 'This is not a women's issue, but a human issue, because it affects all of us.' Head to for why you—and everyone else on Earth—needs to care.
Not to say you haven't done valuable things with your life, but I think we can all agree: This young woman is absolutely crushing it.is about, it's time you learn from Okamoto herself: "This is not a women's issue, but a human issue, because it affects all of us," she says.
. Here's her story and why you—and everyone else on Earth—needs to care.Okamoto started PERIOD when she was just 16 years old after witnessing first-hand the realities of period poverty—aka the inability to afford period products due to lack of access or financial resources. Her family was temporarily without a home of their own, and she was forced to commute two hours to get to school each day. This daily journey required a bus transfer in the Old Town, a neighborhood in Portland, Oregon with a dense population of homeless shelters in just a small radius. Okamoto started befriending the local women who were also without a home, asking them about their living situations, the circumstances that got them there, where their families were, their education, and more. "I'd ask them 'What's the most difficult thing about your living situation?' and it was through these conversations that I heard all these stories of women using toilet paper and socks and brown paper grocery bags and cardboard to take care of their periods," says Okamoto. "It was a wake-up call for me—I had never thought about period poverty before. But it also helped me recognize my own privilege. Even in this time when my family was legally homeless and I had to mark 'no permanent address' on school forms, I never had to use trash to take care of my periods." In Okamoto's all-female family , "periods were very openly discussed," she says. "But when I talked to these homeless women, we all treated menstruation like it was this bad word—we would whisper 'period' like it was something that we needed to hide. We'd conceal tampons when we handed them to each other. I started to notice how the stigma persisted in my own life and became absolutely obsessed with it."Eager to make a change, Okamoto organized a period product drive in her community to support the local homeless shelter—and that's how, a global youth-powered nonprofit fighting to end period poverty and stigma, was born. It started with the simple act of distributing period products to those in need, but the organization has quickly grown in the last five years. To date, PERIOD has addressed more than 1 million periods through product distribution and started more than 700 PERIOD chapters in all 50 US states and in 40+ countries. Plus, right now, the nonprofit is distributing 2 million period products to people in need during the coronavirus pandemic. But they're also pushing for more systematic change, including fighting the "tampon tax," demanding freely accessible period products in schools, shelters,, advocating for better menstrual education, and spreading awareness about these plights. Oh, and about that "tampon tax": Today, 30 States in the U.S. have a sales tax on period products because they're considered non-essential items. Though laws vary by state,include things such as pain relievers and cold medicines, lip balm, condoms, sunscreen, eye drops—but these rules sometimes extend to cover things that are far less, well, essential. "Products like Rogaine, Viagra, and penile pumps are sometimes considered essential goods—necessities," says Okamoto.the population—are taxed as if getting a period is a choice.able to afford period products but areto make that purchase," notes Okamoto. But because period products aren't labeled essential goods, it acts as a roadblock to making these products free in places like prisons, shelters, and schools. "The argument there is that they shouldn't have to have period products or need to have access to period products because they're not essential goods," says Okamoto. "So the tampon tax is sort of this necessary Trojan horse we need to fight with before we can address overall period poverty." And part of fighting period poverty—and gaining respect for the menstrual movement in general—is fighting period stigma, or the tendency to regard menstruation with shame or disgust. Period stigma has fostered menstruation to be thought of as this taboo topic—literally the word "taboo" comes from the
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