Episode Details

I sat down with Matilda, a grade 10 student at William Aberhart High School, today, on Menstrual Hygiene Awareness Day. She shares her project to install free feminine hygiene product dispensers in the girls’ bathrooms so that no student is ever left without supplies when they need them. And explains that her motivation comes from a personal experience of getting her period at school, finding no products available, and recognizing how stigma keeps students from openly asking for help or even naming what they’re going through. Matilda has turned that experience into advocacy, launching a change.org petition and promoting her work through her Instagram account “@AbeFlowsFree,” where she’s also organizing a bake sale to support the cause. Beyond menstrual equity, she speaks candidly about broader problems at her school, from overcrowded, noisy classrooms without enough desks to packed yoga classes where 35 students can barely move without bumping into each other, underscoring how urgently students need better learning conditions.

Jenny: Okay, thank you for joining me today, Matilda. Let’s start with who you are, what you’re up to and just a little bit about you for people listening. Thank you.

Matilda:

Yeah, thank you for having me. My name is Matilda. I’m a grade 10 student at William Aberhart High School. And yeah, this is my project to get free feminine hygiene product dispensers in the girls’ bathroom.

Jenny:

Excellent. And remind us, today’s a special day, right? What’s today for folks who don’t know?

Matilda:

It’s Menstrual Equity Day and Menstrual Awareness Day. A day to make people aware of people that have periods and how they deal with them and the barriers that are in their way and just kind of an advocacy day.

Jenny:

Amazing. Out of curiosity, is there anywhere people can go to find information about that on today?

Matilda:

Well, there’s a website that I like or an Instagram account called The Period Purse. I follow them. They’re a Canadian-based organization and they have a lot of good information.

Jenny:

Amazing. Thank you so much for that, Matilda. Okay. You’re trying to make sure that feminine hygiene projects are free for any student that needs them in high school, at your high school, correct? Yes. And so what does that look like? Why are you doing that? What’s the rationale behind the project?

Matilda:

Well, I just thought that it kind of started with a feeling that I had when I got my period in a bathroom one day and there was nothing there. I was like, “Well, there’s got to be other girls like me.” And it was a really, really bad feeling and there was nobody else there and I didn’t know that my school had stuff, which they don’t. I was like, “Well, I want to do something to stop this.”

Jenny:

Yeah, that’s nuts. I can actually remember a very similar scenario, not just once but many times when I was in high school where I felt I forgot to prepare myself. And yeah, it’s also something that we don’t talk about enough because it does feel like it’s your own thing that happens and not really just an understanding of what it’s like for before it comes kind of thing.

Matilda:

Yeah. Especially in high schools, there’s lots of stigma around it. People will just say, “I’m not feeling well. I need to go home to a teacher instead of like, I’ve got my period. Nobody will ask each other for products when they need them.” And people will just pretend they don’t have it or they’ll laugh about it like, “Ha ha, I got my period when it’s a serious biological thing.”

Jenny:

Yeah. I’ve heard there are certain cultures that will celebrate it and it’ll be a big moment for people