Free Feminine Products Movement

Have you ever felt the panic of getting your period in school and having no tampons or pads?

Do you know the feeling of frantically asking friends for tampons or pads to get you through the day?

What about the embarrassment of having to walk with blood on your clothes to the nurse’s office to ask for feminine products since your school doesn’t provide them in bathrooms?

If so, you are not alone. There are millions of girls worldwide who experience these situations daily, but the reality is that they shouldn’t have to. Instead of girls worrying about not having supplies for their periods, girls should be able to focus on academics and other priorities in their lives.

Not only can not having enough feminine products be a distraction for girls in school but according to globalcitizen.org, there have been worldwide accounts of girls missing school during their periods because they cannot afford tampons or pads.

Toilet paper is provided in bathrooms for both sexes in schools, so why are feminine products, which are basic human needs, not available as well? That’s something I am trying to change.

My name is Emily Aikens, and I am currently a freshman in high school. I saw girls dealing with the tough situations listed above within my own school and decided that a change needed to be made.

After doing research on the topic, I wrote a proposal asking for free tampons and pads to be available in our school bathrooms and student center. After presenting the proposal and answering questions about it, the proposal was unanimously passed by our student government, and it is now in the process of being passed by our administration.

While I am fortunate that changes are in the process of being made at my school, I want to extend this proposal to the public schools in Pennsylvania. In order to do so, I am lobbying PA state representatives to propose a bill that would require all PA public schools to provide free feminine products.

To raise awareness for the issue and gain support, I have created a petition online that can be signed to support the free feminine products movement.  Here is the link: http://chng.it/kLXqZFZwF7 .

Please help support this cause by signing the petition below and help me bring free feminine products to Pennsylvania public schools.