Hey Girls are one year on from launching our “It’s that time of the month!” book and animation!
We are a social enterprise, who provide free period products to people in need via our Buy One, Donate One donation scheme, we are constantly breaking down barriers around period education. We firmly believe that everyone should have free access to adequate period education, regardless of their background, and stress that a period looks different for everybody through our resources.
The free resource has received only positive feedback in its first year. The book and animation have been distributed to schools, businesses, community partners and anyone else who wishes to learn more about periods!
The book – It’s That Time Of The Month – and animations have been kept deliberately no-nonsense and jargon free, created with young people in mind, with the intention of speaking to people of all ages, genders and backgrounds, to cover the basics of menstruation, as well as extra information that teachers and parents tend to shy away from, helping to bridge the gap between education and home learning, at no extra cost.
The book and animation cover everything about periods, from a normal period, abnormal period and period related conditions to healthy and unhealthy discharge and the various period products and their uses and how to use them, including reusable products such as period cups and period pants.
The book and animation were created with students at Edinburgh Napier University, the focus was on using real bodies, bodies with curves and hair illustrating relatable experiences for the majority or all those people who bleed. The resources also cover transgender and gender dysmorphia, supporting the LGBTQIA+ community which is rarely seen in anything to do with periods or period products.
As part of our unique barrier-free access, the resources are available at HeyGirls.co.uk, for free, with additional support provided for those who can’t access them online. Subtitles have also been added to our animations, with plans to make them available in multiple languages shortly.
Working closely with schools and other educational settings across the UK to give them tools to talk about periods with confidence, our education platform is dedicated to schools and hosts other downloadable resources such as myth busters and lesson plans.
This article was written for The Diversity Trust by Harriet Brooks from Hey Girls.
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