‘It’s Just A Period,’ says Stayfree to families across India

On the occasion of World Menstrual Hygiene Day, Stayfree® unveiled a new digital video that invites families to change the way they approach the period conversation. Nearly two million girls in India would have experienced their first period during the lockdown[1]. Built on this premise, Stayfree’s #ItsJustAPeriod encourages families to adopt a positive and open approach towards menstruation to keep her informed and make her feel confident and supported in this journey.

Also, to ensure that families can comfortably have this conversation with the girls in the family, Stayfree have also tied up with Menstrupedia. The platform is a friendly period guide for girls which talks about what periods are and how to manage them better.

It also helps as a resource to have that first conversation with the family.

Nearly 15 million girls1 enter the menarche cycle every year in India, yet more than 71% of them have no knowledge of menstruation before their periods2. They often turn to their teachers and friends for information – the access to which, is restricted during the lockdown.

“This World Menstrual Hygiene Day is a reminder to us all that the onus of normalizing the first period experience for every young girl lies with all of us. And during pandemics when she doesn’t have access to her teachers for information, families can and MUST play the most important role in this” says Manoj Gadgil, Vice President Marketing, Johnson & Johnson Consumer division, India. “Today is just a first step towards creating that awareness and Stayfree® commits to help young girls and their families in this journey.” he added.

The focus of this campaign is to propagate that period conversations are essential so as to ensure that girls do not go through their first experience with periods alone. This campaign will work as an ice-breaker for each individual to freely initiate important period conversations with their daughters or sisters. Parents, grandparents and even siblings can now help share information, make the experience positive, and most importantly ensure no girl ever has to feel ashamed of her periods. (Based on the Government of India census data 2011)