GAME CHANGER

TULSA-BASED COMPANY CREATES INNOVATIVE PERIOD CARE PRODUCT.

BY JULIANNE TRAN

After years of prototyping, beta-testing and a move to Tulsa from Indianapolis, co-founders Drew Jarvis and Cindy Belardo of menstrual care company Sunny Period are prepping to ship their rst orders for the Sunny Cup + Applicator.

“ e Sunny Cup + Applicator is a menstrual cup that inserts like a tampon with the help of a reusable applicator,” Jarvis describes. “It has all the bene ts of other menstrual cups with the ease of use of a tampon. It has the potential to save menstruators thousands of dollars over their lifetime in disposable period product expenses since it can be reused for up to a year.”

Jarvis started thinking about period care as a high schooler in Indiana. “In 2018, I entered into and won a business idea pitch competition,” Jarvis says. “I pitched my idea for a menstrual cup that inserts like a tampon.”

Her idea started to gain more traction in 2020, when she rst connected with Belardo after she moved to Indianapolis. While in college at the University of Oklahoma, Belardo had created a period-focused club and traveled to India to research period stigma and rst-time menstrual cup use.

“We had many FaceTime calls that led to the realization of our similar goals,” Jarvis says.

A match made in co-founder heaven, Jarvis and Belardo founded Sunny Period, which produces the product that Jarvis rst pitched in 2018 (though the original design evolved throughout the research and development process). Interest in the reusable applicator really took o after an April 2022 video on Sunny Period’s TikTok of Jarvis demonstrating how to use the Sunny Cup + Applicator went viral, garnering over 1 million views that month.

“I didn’t think much of it when we posted it. As views and likes quickly climbed, we had people asking where they could buy it,” Jarvis says, noting that’s when they decided to open pre-orders.

“Menstruators are often ignored and underserved, and we’re here to listen and innovate,” she says.

Jarvis and Belardo relocated the company to Tulsa last summer after being invested in by Atento Capital. e Tulsa-based investment rm had put on a business pitch competition, which Sunny Period won.

For more information and to pre-order the Sunny Cup + Applicator, visit sunnyperiod.com. While on the website, also check out Sunny Period’s merch line from which a portion of proceeds are donated to period.org, a global nonpro t working to end period poverty. TP