LOVE YOUR PERIOD CAMPAIGN

by Natalie McCulloch and Molly Fenton

Growing up is not an easy process with so much to learn and so many obstacles to face. Life situations fluctuate, relationships alter and bodies go through a tremendous amount of change at every stage. Things which can really be a lifeline, and often a saving grace, are education, advice and support and that’s exactly what women’s health campaigner, Molly Fenton, strives to achieve for Wales!

Molly explains that her campaign, ‘Love Your Period’, is seen as a big sister community “because its about being the ‘big sister’ which everyone needs, which I wished I had had and wished I could’ve had the knowledge to be there for my own little sister, Tilly”.

Don’t be fooled by the title of the campaign as, ‘Love Your Period’, is far from being about just female menstruation and is certainly not just one ‘for the girls’. It’s about raising awareness, challenging stigma and targeting taboos around periods, sex education and pretty much everything and anything facing young people growing up.

Molly explained something which, I feel, many will relate to, the sense of ‘feeling I should know more about sex and my body’, ‘feeling scared by the unfamiliar changes my body was going through due to hormonal changes’ and a sheer ‘lack of sex education, contraception advice or basic education on period hygiene’. Molly feels it is especially poor for females “In school we were taught several times how to put a condom on, but not once how to insert a tampon, or even which sanitary product to use when” she goes on to explain about some of the myths which circulated her teenage years such as “tampons take your virginity”. Molly feels passionately that as a nation we have been falsely taught to NOT talk about these things, that they are ‘taboo’, “…we now need to stand up and question what for years we have shut up about!”

So why call it ‘Love Your Period’? One of the main target areas of the campaign is bringing Wales up to speed with the rest of the UK in terms of sanitary product provision. Did you know that only in 2019 did the Welsh Government provide free period products for schools?

According to PHS, who Molly works closely with, “25% of girls told us they had to make do without period products during their period” and “36% of girls felt there is a lack of education over matters such as periods and contraception”.

In 2018 Molly independently set up ‘Love Your Period’ which, thanks to support from her community and local rotary club, enabled her to collect and distribute essential boxes of FREE sanitary protection to those in need. When the Welsh Government discovered this, they offered her a position on their round table.

“I wasn’t happy to discover that there were no people of school age involved with the Welsh Governments round table which influences campaigns and change for Wales, so I was happy to be given the opportunity to pipe up! I felt more young people needed to have a voice and be listened to about the issues they are facing, periods being a major one!”

Molly mainly channelled her campaign through social media to reach out to her target audience and get the important messages of the campaign across. It wasn’t long before other companies and organisations started to pick up on the amazing work she was doing and approached her to join forces. Today the campaign teams up with organisations such as Plan UK, SexEdMatters and Freedom4Girls.

Molly and the ‘Love Your Period’ Campaign has gone on to win several awards such as a Prime Ministers ‘Point of Light’ award and St Davids Young Persons award 2021, all well-deserved and reinforcement of the amazing things she’s achieving.

It’s not always easy and more needs to be done to challenge and change society but thanks to campaigners like Molly we’re heading in the right direction.

Molly states “I think our generation is more open to talking about things, we shouldn’t be scared to talk about things that affect our wellbeing and health, these things could be lifechanging”. The campaign can be met with adversity, Molly feels that this is reducing in time but can increase the more in-depth topics they cover. However, this will not stop her from speaking out

about what she believes in!

Molly’s supporters include her siblings “My sister is excellent, I often just think ‘wow!’ when I listen to how passionate she is, she is a fighter, she recently led a march in London including a stop in at Downing Street! My brother also is a role model for men, he has encouraged boys to join this campaign by championing that boys need education on female issues!”

‘Love Your Period’ has volunteers globally helping them in their fight for what is right for the nation. They range from ages 13-86 and represent all backgrounds and sexes! They need more volunteers to join them in their platform to make their voice louder and get their points heard!

If you feel passionately that this is something you would like to be involved with, or know more about, Molly invites you to contact her via loveyourperiodcampaign@gmail.com or check out her social media sites linked here: https://linktr.ee/ loveyourperiod

When campaigning for change is concerned, the more people on board, the louder the voice, the more successful the action can be!