Youth Activists Mobilize in New Jersey to End Menstruation Poverty, Rally Toward National Period Day

The PERIOD Movement activates Gen Z activists in 400+ nationwide chapters to
organize rallies on October 19 in all 50 US states to publicly unite with and call legislators into the conversation about menstrual equity.

NEW JERSEY—Oct 1, 2019— Youth activists from the PERIOD movement chapters at
Princeton, Moorestown, Rowan University, Rutgers, Notre Dame HS, and Newark
Academy will host a rally at Hinds Plaza in Princeton, NJ on October 19, 2019 at 3 to
4:30 PM. The rallies will mark a single day of organized effort across all 50 states to
demand legislators address taxation of menstruation products.

Members of the Menstrual Movement believe that it is a fundamental human right to
have access to menstrual hygiene. Currently, 35 states in the US still have a sales tax on
period products considering them luxury items, while products for men’s sexual health
such as Viagra are considered essential goods.

The average woman will spend an average of $11,000 in their lifetime on tampons, and
one in four women struggled to afford period products in the last year, due to a lack of
income. The most recent city-based study on period poverty revealed that “46 percent
of women had to choose between food and menstrual hygiene products.” PERIOD is
working to eliminate this.

On National Period Day, PERIOD and its chapters will be rallying to fight for equitable
access to menstrual hygiene. They are calling for two major actions: for clean and
healthy period products to be freely accessible in schools, shelters, and prisons, and for
the elimination of the “tampon tax” (sales tax on menstrual products).

Movement founder Nadya Okamoto has also been a thought leader in the Menstrual
Movement, addressing policy in her book PERIOD POWER. She has worked to ignite
all 400+ chapters actively utilize social media, local news, and grassroots organization
to mobilize and address the removal of the luxury tax on menstrual goods,
“The work we are doing at PERIOD has never been more important than right now
especially with everything happening in the world around reproductive rights and
gender equality,” said Nadya Okamoto, Founder and Executive Director at PERIOD.
“In the last four years, PERIOD has addressed over 700,000 periods through our work distributing PERIOD packs and products. Our work and activism this coming year will
be critical to addressing our goal of ending period poverty and stigma. We demand
change NOW.”

PERIOD’s expansive network of youth-run chapters will be organizing rallies in all 50
states. To find a rally near you visit: http://www.nationalperiodday.com

About PERIOD
Nadya Okamoto started PERIOD when she was 16 years old and living in Portland.
Currently a junior at Harvard, Nadya recently published her debut book, Period Power:
A Manifesto for the Menstrual Movement with publisher Simon & Schuster.

Founded in 2014, PERIOD is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. PERIOD’s mission is to
eliminate period poverty and stigma through advocacy, education and service. With
the support of generous partners, sponsors, and individuals PERIOD delivers menstrual
products and PERIOD packs to those in need. Through thoughtful education geared to
destigmatize the way periods are thought and talked about, the organization is
elevating the issue to eliminate the taboo through a growing network of high school,
college, and community chapters.