Girls Health Period equips community with menstrual health education and period products

Several years ago, when Brittani Gray worked as a high school intervention specialist, she created a hygiene closet of products for students to visit whenever they needed something. She stocked it with toothpaste, toothbrushes, undershirts, underwear, pads and tampons. She soon noticed the period products would run out first.

She also noticed that some school absences were due to students not having proper menstrual products to use. Gray says, “Students basically had to create for themselves a decision of, ‘Either I’m not going to school, or I’m going with a period product that is not sufficient.’”

That wasn’t OK with Gray.

After later transitioning her career to hair styling, Gray felt pulled to continue to help provide for that community of junior high and high school menstruators. She collected $2000 in donations and provided two schools with period products for their students in September 2018. Five months later, she was donating products to 30 schools.

That’s how she started her nonprofit organization, Girls Health Period. 

Students in grades 2-4 show off the projects they worked on during a Girls Health Period STEM class at Union Terminal. The organization offers a variety of courses covering topics like the menstrual cycle, menstrual hygiene and menstrual awareness.Period products + education = empowerment
Today the organization not only provides period products to area schools, but also offers education courses to students, educators, parents and caregivers, and employers. Two of Gray’s many goals with Girls Health Period are to boost the self-esteem of students and enhance school attendance.

She also aims to enhance awareness in the community that menstrual health is public health. “Menstrual health isn’t just a single gender issue. It affects our entire society,” Gray says.

Both driven and passionate, Gray has achieved notable milestones in the past six years of leading Girls Health Period entirely through community contributions. Since that first collection of donations from her personal contacts back in 2018, the organization has:
 

• Donated more than 1.4 million menstrual products, underwear and sports bras
• Provided donations to more than 155 schools
• Held education classes in 83 schools

She ticks off statistics that she finds unacceptable: Three out of five girls in Cincinnati miss school due to their period. Up to 35% of girls stop participating in sports when they start to menstruate, often due to lack of access to proper sports gear and menstrual products.

Event funds will go toward sports gear for local female athletes
Students in grades 9-12 gather after one of five menstrual health classes held at the annual Girls Health Period Summit in 2024.It’s these statistics that Gray aims to change. She is particularly excited this month because a fundraiser that was waylaid by the COVID-19 pandemic is finally coming to fruition. Titled Bourbon, Bingo and Bras, the event will raise funds for sports bras for female athletes in the community. It will be held on Sunday, March 30, at New Riff Distillery in Newport.

She’s eager to see the results of this fundraiser and the impact it will have in the Greater Cincinnati region. “When you have a menstruator who is able to be vocal about their health in the doctor's office or with a teacher or with their parent, you are creating a foundation of boldness and being clear and confident in moving forward,” Gray says.

She witnesses these types of actions in students after the Girls Health Period education classes she teaches. She points out that knowing about one’s own body is a stepping stone to self-assurance that young people can carry with them into the future. Says Gray, “To see students at ages 11 through 17 tackle systemic issues or social issues — that started with building the confidence of knowing themselves.”

You can find Girls Health Period at https://girlshealthperiod.org.

To learn more about and support the Girls Health Period fundraiser on Sunday, March 30, at New Riff Distillery in Newport, visit the Bourbon, Bingo and Bras website. Tickets can be purchased online in advance or at the door.