In the high school over the past few months, you may have seen the Free Period Talk posters hanging in almost every hallway. Free Period Talk is an essential club at HHS with the goals of highlighting the stigmas around having a period. Co-founders and presidents Madeleine Accettella and Elise Olin started Free Period Talk Hingham at the beginning of last school year. Free Period Talk Hingham is a branch of Free Period Talk that they founded in Hingham based on the organization Free. (pronounced Free Period), which is a nonprofit organization that has provided schools across Massachusetts with period products. They also emphasize the stigmas around period poverty and aim to have more menstruation awareness. Establishing this club has allowed Elsie and Madeleine to combine these ideas with the needs of their community to “eliminate all of that stigma around periods and try to raise awareness for this completely normal body function,” as Elsie explained.
Free Period Talk Hingham recently ran a drive, asking students to donate period products, such as tampons, liners, and pads. They ran a similar drive last fall, and donated all of the products to Free., who then donated the products to women’s shelters all around Massachusetts. However, this year, the drive is providing Higham High School with products to stock all of the female and gender neutral bathrooms. Although Hingham High school has received a donation of products from the Free. organization in the past, additional products are needed to continue having period products in each bathroom. Therefore the donations made from the drive will all be added to Hingham High School’s supply of period products. In an interview with Elsie Olin, she remarked, “We’re doing the drive so that our own community can donate and feel like they’re being involved.”
One of the biggest stigmas that the Free Period Talk club is trying to rectify is that periods should be kept secret. Madeleine asserted, “The code names that are used to describe periods like my time of the month, ant flow, or shark week are ways for people to avoid talking directly about a period, making it something that needs to be said in hushed words.” The club aims to make people more comfortable around the idea of being in school during their periods by having the free products available in the bathrooms whenever people need them. Not having to rush to the nurses office for a pad or sneakily hide a tampon in your sleeve are things that the club desires to eliminate by keeping a steady supply of available and comfortable products.
Another big aspiration that the Free Period Talk club has is to help students miss less school time. Elsie Olin noted, “Periods should not be the reason why you are not able to go to school. You should be able to continue your education without having to worry about things that you can’t control like not having access to a pad or tampon.” After last year’s drive, Madeleine and Elsie wanted to look into the needs of students, specifically at Hingham High School. Madeleine revealed, “We sent out a survey and got 140 responses. It was really eye-opening because it showed that some people could not afford period products, which should be just as affordable as toilet paper.” Later, she mentioned, “Also, many people were missing a lot of class time, would have to secretly text a friend for a tampon, or hurry with a coat around their waist to the nurses office because they bled through.”
According to the survey, 92 percent claimed that they had to miss class time because of their period and 63 percent of menstruators have had to leave early from school because of their periods. These are examples that can be helped with the easily accessible products that are restocked weekly. Free Period Talk club members monitor the supply and demand for certain products in each bathroom. Members also restock the bathrooms themselves, making sure that students will never find themselves without a pad, tampon, or liner in an emergency.
In future years, Madeleine and Elsie, although they will no longer be High High School students, hope that Free Period Talk Higham will be extended down to the middle school. Elsie voiced, “As of right now, we are really trying to focus on the high school, especially because we are in demand for these products, but I do think it would be a really great idea to expand in the future.”
Students can continue to support Free Period Talk by following their instagram and joining the club here at Hingham High. Another way to contribute outside of the drive is to support Period and Period Poverty Awareness Week from May 12 through the 17th. Free Period Talk encourages students to band together against the stigmas circulating around periods and to use the period products in the bathrooms instead of being embarrassed.
