#WCW: Nadya Okamoto
Take a minute to think back on where you were at 16. Excited for your first car? Ready to get started at your first job? Looking forward to your first prom date? What about starting a global movement that sparks conversation on menstruation? Yeah, me neither…
Insert Nadya Okamoto, this week’s #wcw and all-around inspiration for social movements. At just 16 she started PERIOD. a women’s health organization that promotes universal access to menstrual health products and eliminating period poverty and stigma among all menstruating individuals.
Nadya not only started this incredibly important conversation, but she also ran for Cambridge City Council at age 19, published a book on her story and mission, and works on countless non-profit boards and social campaigns for gender equality. Now at age 21, Nadya continues her advocacy work while also studying sociology (congrats on changing your major, girl!) at none other than the prestigious Harvard University.
Nadya inspires us that it doesn’t matter what your life journey has been like, you deserve a basic standard of hygiene for all of life’s natural bodily processes. We should all take a page out of her book (literally, perhaps?) and show a bit more compassion in breaking the taboos and stigmas against normal human experiences.
To learn more about Nadya and her work with PERIOD. check out the following links:
Why This Woman Is Leaving Harvard To Carry On A Menstrual Movement
How one woman is trying to end period stigma and the “tampon tax”