ministration let that word sink in by
show of hands does anyone feel
uncomfortable right now
now I’m gonna start this talk with a
little test I want you all to take out
your iPhones and type in the word
ministration go ahead now what happens
for me what I do is on my iPhone I get
the autocorrect suggestion men’s
triathlon men’s true argument or the
latest one
if this men’s struggling did anyone
actually get the correct suggestion now
I want you to raise your hands if you
have ever had a conversation with a girl
or woman ages 12 to 50 I’m assuming
that’s everyone this means that each and
every one of you has had a conversation
with someone who experiences
administration menstruation it’s a
natural biological process that every
girl and woman goes through each month
it’s so significant that the survival of
the human race depends on it we’re
constantly surrounded by women and girls
going through this important process but
we don’t ever talk about it
I’m sure when you heard what I was
speaking on today some of you might have
felt a little uncomfortable before I
started researching this topic I thought
that that was okay if we don’t want to
talk about it
we shouldn’t have to talk about it what
I didn’t realize is there are a lot of
issues surrounding menstruation that we
don’t know about because we don’t talk
about it last October a 12 year old girl
from South India committed suicide after
being publicly shamed when her teacher
saw a blood stain on her skirt pointed
it out to the whole class and forced her
to stand outside of the classroom she
mentioned the shame over this incident
in her suicide letter this is pinky her
mother advises her every month to stay
at home when she is menstruating instead
of going to school
she tells her father and brother that
she is sick with fever another
story is of Shahana an 11 year old girl
from Bangladesh one day after school she
came home and washed her minstrel rags
she hugged them up on a tree to dry a
harmful insect settled on the rag
without noticing the insect she ever
uses rag the next day the insect entered
her body through the vagina she felt
serious stomach pains and was taken to
the hospital a week later she died meet
Celeste merchants the founder of days
for girls a nonprofit that creates and
distributes pads to girls in need
Celeste started hellenization when she
was volunteering at an orphanage in
Nairobi she realized that while her teen
was sending books food and other
supplies they were not addressing
feminine hygiene when she asked the
orphanage director what the girls were
doing to manage their menstruation he
said nothing nothing they just sat on
pieces of cardboard for several days
each month often going without food if
no one brought it to them now I couldn’t
disclose the real names or pictures of
these girls but their stories are very
real their stories reflect the lives of
millions of girls worldwide the story of
Celeste shows us why talking about
menstruation is so important
menstruation remains a taboo topic today
and it’s rarely talked about most people
are more comfortable talking about sex
administration just take a look at all
the ads that were started by every day
they use sex to so think about the TV
shows and movies that you’ve been
watching
they probably mentioned sex but never
menstruation numbers say a lot more to
me than words do so let me give you some
data to back up my point
a study in northeast Ethiopia found that
only 36% of girls wore sanitary napkins
the rest used cloth or underwear the
girls who didn’t use them said that the
reasons were high cost shame to buy them
and lack of availability most villages
in developing countries don’t even sell
pads or tampons and even if they do they
are extremely expensive
they’re about $20 compared to $6 in the
US this study also found that 58% of
girls reported that their school
performance declined after they started
administrating furthermore the study
found that school dropouts were more
likely when girls did not have access to
menstrual products this next study gave
a minstrel hygiene class and menstrual
products to a group of schoolgirls
they found that girls in the control
group had a seventeen percent greater
drop in attendance compared to those
receiving the education or pads most
girls in low-income countries only have
one school uniform so they choose to
stay at home rather than come to school
and stain it while menstruating these
girls also often use pieces of cloth to
manage the administration however the
cloths slip out of their underwear
easily linked through easily and smell
bad quickly when girls were asked with
the most effective way to manage their
menstruation was they said go home
that’s like me telling you if you’re to
start menstruating right now to walk out
of this auditorium right now to leave
this talk and it’s not because you
forgot to pack minstrel hygiene products
or your girlfriend’s don’t have any
extras in their purses it’s because
there are none not ending them any in
the bathrooms or even sold out Walmart
you either sit there and bleed on that
seat or you go home those are your
choices
not only our girls education is being
affected by menstruation but their
health as well many girls are forced to
use unclean menstrual practices such as
using unsanitized cloth paper from
school plastic bags
dry grass ashes and even cow dung
because of the taboo of menstruation
they are too ashamed to wash and dry
their products outside so they hang them
up inside in the shadows hidden as you
may know the Sun has natural
antibacterial drying properties so when
the cloths are kept inside in the
shadows they are not dried fully and
there is moisture and bacteria trapped
inside because of this there are
alarmingly high rates of reproductive
tract infections Jen
– scabies abdominal pains and even
complications during pregnancy one
solution is to distribute menstrual
products to girls in need by
distributing menstrual products we can
increase girls school attendance and
even school performance days for girls
the organization I mentioned earlier is
one of the biggest nonprofits that
creates in distributes reusable products
they make these kits that come with
cloth holders pieces of underwear and
soap and washcloths these are the cloth
holders that can snap into the girls
underwear they also come with several
squares of absorbent cloth that can be
folded into that holder for maximum
absorbency they all can be washed and
dried very easily with little water and
lasts for about two to three years days
for girls has reached over 1 million
now you may only thinking this is
terrible but what does this have to do
with me well these girls have a right to
education but they didn’t choose to be
female they didn’t choose to live where
they live but they do choose education
they yearn to go to school but they’re
forced to stay at home because they
don’t have any other choice but you have
a choice to think about menstruation to
talk about menstruation to act on this
problem you have the choice to step
outside of your comfort zone so that a
girl doesn’t have to suffer because
every choice we make as a whole can make
a huge difference because menstruation
isn’t something we usually talk about it
also isn’t a heavily researched topic it
is extremely difficult for me to find
relevant data for this talk so I know
that if we all start talking about it
more and researching it more we will
make progress if there is more evidence
to show that distributing menstrual
products to girls in need improves their
education opportunities than more
organizations will start doing it
because not many people know about this
problem not many humanitarian
organizations realize that this is a
problem so they don’t distribute aid in
the form of feminine hygiene products
the organizations that have been
distributing sanitary products today
have only been doing this in the past
decade for example after pad days for
girls launch pad one girl all of these
menstrual hygiene organizations have
been founded in 2010 or later we
distribute food money medical supplies
but why not minced your products this is
a fairly easy problem to fix and that is
why I would like us to start talking
about menstruation more because when we
don’t talk about a problem we don’t
recognize it as a problem when I found
out about all of this I was 15 years old
my mother had read an article about
girls missing school because of
administration and she told me about it
I am mean
we started researching this issue my
mother and I learned how to make
menstrual hygiene kits and we solved
sewed over 75 of them this is me making
the menstrual health kits I don’t even
know how to sew so the fact that I was
able to make these shows that anyone can
do it I had my friend from Ethiopia take
them with her to a local girl’s
orphanage and she told me that went up
other organizations in the area found
out that she had these kids they all
started contacting her and asking her if
she had more since then I have become
extremely passionate about this topic
it has led me to pursue a career in
women’s reproductive health issues an
internship with days for girls and to
create my own research project here at
ung on the distribution of menstrual
products and guess what it’s led me here
today talking to all of you two weeks
ago I was able to go two days for girls
headquarters and intern there this is me
making the days for girls kids this
summer I’m going on a study abroad to
Sri Lanka where I’ll distribute all the
days for girls kids there I was even
able to meet Celeste Morgan’s she is an
amazing woman I hope to continue working
with dates for girls and researching
this issue I have made it my life’s
mission to help girls all over the world
go to school I want to be a voice for
girls who cry out for education nothing
should stand in a girl’s way to
education especially not a biological
process she cannot control you see all
of this my internship research project
me coming to speak at this TEDx event my
service project all of this was sparked
by one conversation the conversation
that my mother and I had about that
article these little steps can lead to
big ideas and big changes most of us
don’t think about menstruation that
often because it’s just pushed under the
rug for example if you saw a homeless
woman on
Street who do you wonder how she is
managing her menstruation you don’t have
to go to the other side of the world to
see the struggles of dealing with
menstruation you can see them in your
own backyard I volunteer at the ung food
pantry and I’m always so excited when we
get donations of menstral products in if
you haven’t noticed they’re really
expensive some women might be forced to
choose between buying a meal or
menstrual products ministration a normal
bodily process that can create the
difference between going to school and
not going to school the difference
between empowerment and poverty the
menstruation isn’t something inherently
dirty or shameful we as a society have
made it that way by not talking about
menstruation
we’re implying to girls that they need
to hide their menstruation that they
need to be ashamed of themselves tampons
are becoming slimmer and slimmer pads
now come in cute cases say you can slip
them in your purse without anyone
knowing what you’re carrying Tampax
has recently come out with a new product
with a softer quieter wrapper the main
selling point for menstrual products is
that they are discreet the main selling
point should be that they’re effective
comfortable useful not that you can hide
them easily one study found that people
avoided sitting next to a woman who
dropped a clean unused tampon out of her
purse versus when she dropped a hair
clip all of these messages that women
receive tell her that she is dirty that
she needs to be ashamed that she needs
to hide her menstruation Society uses
administration as evidence that women
are the unclean sex in this talk I’ve
said the word menstruation over forty
five times
I’m sure that’s more than any of you
have heard in your entire lives
I hope that this top has desensitized
all of you to realize that there is
nothing dirty shameful private or scary
about menstruation
my dream is that one day we can all talk
about menstruation without feeling shame
or disgust I dream for a day when no
girl has to miss school because of
menstruation menstruation shouldn’t be
hidden it should be celebrated
it’s celebrating the amazing ability to
bring life into this world I challenge
each and every one of you to bring up
ministration in your next conversation
I’ll give you all an easy assignment all
if you do is mention this TEDx talk I’m
not asking you to donate money or start
an entire movement just a conversation
the solution starts with you with one
conversation one conversation about menstruation thank you everyone
show of hands does anyone feel
uncomfortable right now
now I’m gonna start this talk with a
little test I want you all to take out
your iPhones and type in the word
ministration go ahead now what happens
for me what I do is on my iPhone I get
the autocorrect suggestion men’s
triathlon men’s true argument or the
latest one
if this men’s struggling did anyone
actually get the correct suggestion now
I want you to raise your hands if you
have ever had a conversation with a girl
or woman ages 12 to 50 I’m assuming
that’s everyone this means that each and
every one of you has had a conversation
with someone who experiences
administration menstruation it’s a
natural biological process that every
girl and woman goes through each month
it’s so significant that the survival of
the human race depends on it we’re
constantly surrounded by women and girls
going through this important process but
we don’t ever talk about it
I’m sure when you heard what I was
speaking on today some of you might have
felt a little uncomfortable before I
started researching this topic I thought
that that was okay if we don’t want to
talk about it
we shouldn’t have to talk about it what
I didn’t realize is there are a lot of
issues surrounding menstruation that we
don’t know about because we don’t talk
about it last October a 12 year old girl
from South India committed suicide after
being publicly shamed when her teacher
saw a blood stain on her skirt pointed
it out to the whole class and forced her
to stand outside of the classroom she
mentioned the shame over this incident
in her suicide letter this is pinky her
mother advises her every month to stay
at home when she is menstruating instead
of going to school
she tells her father and brother that
she is sick with fever another
story is of Shahana an 11 year old girl
from Bangladesh one day after school she
came home and washed her minstrel rags
she hugged them up on a tree to dry a
harmful insect settled on the rag
without noticing the insect she ever
uses rag the next day the insect entered
her body through the vagina she felt
serious stomach pains and was taken to
the hospital a week later she died meet
Celeste merchants the founder of days
for girls a nonprofit that creates and
distributes pads to girls in need
Celeste started hellenization when she
was volunteering at an orphanage in
Nairobi she realized that while her teen
was sending books food and other
supplies they were not addressing
feminine hygiene when she asked the
orphanage director what the girls were
doing to manage their menstruation he
said nothing nothing they just sat on
pieces of cardboard for several days
each month often going without food if
no one brought it to them now I couldn’t
disclose the real names or pictures of
these girls but their stories are very
real their stories reflect the lives of
millions of girls worldwide the story of
Celeste shows us why talking about
menstruation is so important
menstruation remains a taboo topic today
and it’s rarely talked about most people
are more comfortable talking about sex
administration just take a look at all
the ads that were started by every day
they use sex to so think about the TV
shows and movies that you’ve been
watching
they probably mentioned sex but never
menstruation numbers say a lot more to
me than words do so let me give you some
data to back up my point
a study in northeast Ethiopia found that
only 36% of girls wore sanitary napkins
the rest used cloth or underwear the
girls who didn’t use them said that the
reasons were high cost shame to buy them
and lack of availability most villages
in developing countries don’t even sell
pads or tampons and even if they do they
are extremely expensive
they’re about $20 compared to $6 in the
US this study also found that 58% of
girls reported that their school
performance declined after they started
administrating furthermore the study
found that school dropouts were more
likely when girls did not have access to
menstrual products this next study gave
a minstrel hygiene class and menstrual
products to a group of schoolgirls
they found that girls in the control
group had a seventeen percent greater
drop in attendance compared to those
receiving the education or pads most
girls in low-income countries only have
one school uniform so they choose to
stay at home rather than come to school
and stain it while menstruating these
girls also often use pieces of cloth to
manage the administration however the
cloths slip out of their underwear
easily linked through easily and smell
bad quickly when girls were asked with
the most effective way to manage their
menstruation was they said go home
that’s like me telling you if you’re to
start menstruating right now to walk out
of this auditorium right now to leave
this talk and it’s not because you
forgot to pack minstrel hygiene products
or your girlfriend’s don’t have any
extras in their purses it’s because
there are none not ending them any in
the bathrooms or even sold out Walmart
you either sit there and bleed on that
seat or you go home those are your
choices
not only our girls education is being
affected by menstruation but their
health as well many girls are forced to
use unclean menstrual practices such as
using unsanitized cloth paper from
school plastic bags
dry grass ashes and even cow dung
because of the taboo of menstruation
they are too ashamed to wash and dry
their products outside so they hang them
up inside in the shadows hidden as you
may know the Sun has natural
antibacterial drying properties so when
the cloths are kept inside in the
shadows they are not dried fully and
there is moisture and bacteria trapped
inside because of this there are
alarmingly high rates of reproductive
tract infections Jen
– scabies abdominal pains and even
complications during pregnancy one
solution is to distribute menstrual
products to girls in need by
distributing menstrual products we can
increase girls school attendance and
even school performance days for girls
the organization I mentioned earlier is
one of the biggest nonprofits that
creates in distributes reusable products
they make these kits that come with
cloth holders pieces of underwear and
soap and washcloths these are the cloth
holders that can snap into the girls
underwear they also come with several
squares of absorbent cloth that can be
folded into that holder for maximum
absorbency they all can be washed and
dried very easily with little water and
lasts for about two to three years days
for girls has reached over 1 million
now you may only thinking this is
terrible but what does this have to do
with me well these girls have a right to
education but they didn’t choose to be
female they didn’t choose to live where
they live but they do choose education
they yearn to go to school but they’re
forced to stay at home because they
don’t have any other choice but you have
a choice to think about menstruation to
talk about menstruation to act on this
problem you have the choice to step
outside of your comfort zone so that a
girl doesn’t have to suffer because
every choice we make as a whole can make
a huge difference because menstruation
isn’t something we usually talk about it
also isn’t a heavily researched topic it
is extremely difficult for me to find
relevant data for this talk so I know
that if we all start talking about it
more and researching it more we will
make progress if there is more evidence
to show that distributing menstrual
products to girls in need improves their
education opportunities than more
organizations will start doing it
because not many people know about this
problem not many humanitarian
organizations realize that this is a
problem so they don’t distribute aid in
the form of feminine hygiene products
the organizations that have been
distributing sanitary products today
have only been doing this in the past
decade for example after pad days for
girls launch pad one girl all of these
menstrual hygiene organizations have
been founded in 2010 or later we
distribute food money medical supplies
but why not minced your products this is
a fairly easy problem to fix and that is
why I would like us to start talking
about menstruation more because when we
don’t talk about a problem we don’t
recognize it as a problem when I found
out about all of this I was 15 years old
my mother had read an article about
girls missing school because of
administration and she told me about it
I am mean
we started researching this issue my
mother and I learned how to make
menstrual hygiene kits and we solved
sewed over 75 of them this is me making
the menstrual health kits I don’t even
know how to sew so the fact that I was
able to make these shows that anyone can
do it I had my friend from Ethiopia take
them with her to a local girl’s
orphanage and she told me that went up
other organizations in the area found
out that she had these kids they all
started contacting her and asking her if
she had more since then I have become
extremely passionate about this topic
it has led me to pursue a career in
women’s reproductive health issues an
internship with days for girls and to
create my own research project here at
ung on the distribution of menstrual
products and guess what it’s led me here
today talking to all of you two weeks
ago I was able to go two days for girls
headquarters and intern there this is me
making the days for girls kids this
summer I’m going on a study abroad to
Sri Lanka where I’ll distribute all the
days for girls kids there I was even
able to meet Celeste Morgan’s she is an
amazing woman I hope to continue working
with dates for girls and researching
this issue I have made it my life’s
mission to help girls all over the world
go to school I want to be a voice for
girls who cry out for education nothing
should stand in a girl’s way to
education especially not a biological
process she cannot control you see all
of this my internship research project
me coming to speak at this TEDx event my
service project all of this was sparked
by one conversation the conversation
that my mother and I had about that
article these little steps can lead to
big ideas and big changes most of us
don’t think about menstruation that
often because it’s just pushed under the
rug for example if you saw a homeless
woman on
Street who do you wonder how she is
managing her menstruation you don’t have
to go to the other side of the world to
see the struggles of dealing with
menstruation you can see them in your
own backyard I volunteer at the ung food
pantry and I’m always so excited when we
get donations of menstral products in if
you haven’t noticed they’re really
expensive some women might be forced to
choose between buying a meal or
menstrual products ministration a normal
bodily process that can create the
difference between going to school and
not going to school the difference
between empowerment and poverty the
menstruation isn’t something inherently
dirty or shameful we as a society have
made it that way by not talking about
menstruation
we’re implying to girls that they need
to hide their menstruation that they
need to be ashamed of themselves tampons
are becoming slimmer and slimmer pads
now come in cute cases say you can slip
them in your purse without anyone
knowing what you’re carrying Tampax
has recently come out with a new product
with a softer quieter wrapper the main
selling point for menstrual products is
that they are discreet the main selling
point should be that they’re effective
comfortable useful not that you can hide
them easily one study found that people
avoided sitting next to a woman who
dropped a clean unused tampon out of her
purse versus when she dropped a hair
clip all of these messages that women
receive tell her that she is dirty that
she needs to be ashamed that she needs
to hide her menstruation Society uses
administration as evidence that women
are the unclean sex in this talk I’ve
said the word menstruation over forty
five times
I’m sure that’s more than any of you
have heard in your entire lives
I hope that this top has desensitized
all of you to realize that there is
nothing dirty shameful private or scary
about menstruation
my dream is that one day we can all talk
about menstruation without feeling shame
or disgust I dream for a day when no
girl has to miss school because of
menstruation menstruation shouldn’t be
hidden it should be celebrated
it’s celebrating the amazing ability to
bring life into this world I challenge
each and every one of you to bring up
ministration in your next conversation
I’ll give you all an easy assignment all
if you do is mention this TEDx talk I’m
not asking you to donate money or start
an entire movement just a conversation
the solution starts with you with one
conversation one conversation about menstruation thank you everyone
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