Youth Initiative Started in Ambler: The Student Period Movement

AMBLER, PA — Local Ambler resident and 10th grade student at Germantown Friends School, Joanna Lin, recently started "The Student Period Movement", which has since acquired over 500 individual menstrual products to be donated to homeless shelters across the tri-state area.

According to Joanna, the goal of The Student Period Movement is to shed light on and end the current stigma surrounding menstruation today, support menstruators in need, and to educate the upcoming generations on what menstruation truly is.

Their current focus is the period poverty crisis (the inability to access menstrual hygiene): an unfortunate reality for many homeless menstruators.

To combat this, the movement is sponsoring various box drives for tampons, pads, and other menstrual products in many of the schools in the tri-state area. Currently, they are running a drive at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, PA, and will run other drives at SCH, Wissahickon, Upper Dublin, and others starting in March.

As the most recent generation of girls encountering menstruation, Joanna noticed "a significant lack of proper menstrual education" for both girls and boys, which she believes adds to the current stigma around the topic today.

As the founder of The Student Period Movement, Joanna has since led dialogues on the effects of menstrual stigma, taught the younger students about why menstruation is nothing to be ashamed about, and has amassed a following of over 200 on the movement's Instagram, run by Wissahickon High School sophomore, Katie Lu (social director of the movement).

If you have any questions for The Student Period Movement, feel free to email them via thestudentperiodmovement@gmail.com