Ashley Novoa of the Chicago Period Project on Access and Dispelling Menstrual Stigmas [086]

Do you know that feeling when one memory sparks another? I was in Austin, Texas, recently, at a brewery called Austin Beerworks. I went to the bathroom and there, in a small basket, were tampons, pads, and hand sanitizer. Then, I went to another brewery—I was there for my day job as a producer of podcasts for a beer website—and there was the same set up. Tampons, pads, hand sanitizer.

Seeing these reminded me of this one time I was working behind the bar. It was 2014, and I was working with this woman named Hannah. I mentioned that I got my period, she said she was on hers, too, and the next person that walked in was another one of our coworkers. She took $20 from the register, gave it to our coworker, and asked him to get us tampons.

I remember feeling that her act was so…brazen. I couldn’t believe it. Five years later, looking at the bathrooms in Austin, I was oddly reminded of that shame I felt.

Ashley Novoa is looking to dispel that shame. Ashley is the founder of the Chicago Period Project, a non-profit aimed at providing homeless and underserved people menstrual products. Along with providing resources, Ashley also works to normalize discussions around menstrual health, and expand the terminology and scope of issues of menstruation. People have looked at her work and said, “this is a women’s issue,” and her organization is working to show folks that it’s not just women who bleed, and furthermore that menstrual health affects all members of society.

I wanted to talk to Ashley about access—how do we, as folks who work in public-facing jobs—provide menstrual products to everyone? Not just sheepish baristas like I was in 2014, but to community members? Why doesn’t every coffeeshop provide menstrual products for free? What stigmas do we continue to uphold that keep us from providing resources equally? My conversation with Ashley begins to shine a light on these things.