Workplace conversations about inclusivity and employee wellbeing have come a long way. However, menstrual health still often gets overlooked . Despite the fact it affects half the population, too many businesses treat period products like a luxury.
This is where Aunt Flow is flipping the narrative to try and make period products as standard as toilet paper. This journey began in 2016 when founder and CEO Claire Coder had a lightbulb moment in an event bathroom. She was only 18 years old and stuck without a pad or tampon.
Her only option was an old-school coin-operated dispenser – and she didn’t have any cash on her. “I thought, ‘wow, if toilet paper is offered at no cost, why aren’t period products?’” Coder said to SmartCompany. We were sitting in a room at HubSpot’s Inbound – a huge conference in Boston with over 12,000 attendees.
No doubt, many of them would face similar menstrual challenges through the course of the week. Fortunately for them, every bathroom on site was stocked with Aunt Flow baskets of period products – free of charge. Coder’s question six years ago turned into a business that now provides menstrual products in over 60,000 bathrooms and 2500 businesses, schools and venues.
But Coder isn’t complacent. While Aunt Flow can now be found in various locations across every state of the US, there are plenty more locations – and countries – to go. “My vision for Aunt Flow is that no one ever has to worry about getting their period in .