It has been raining in Paris for almost three weeks when Natalia Vodianova logged on to Zoom in mid-May, but she is holding on to the ethereal glow that made her a world-famous model and gave her the flat -form to make something out of it. Even projected in a faded gray light clouded by finicky WiFi, her resolution radiates off the screen: she really, really wants to talk about the periods.
Born in the Soviet Union, the 39-year-old has always cared and worried about the dangerous influence of shame. Her younger sister, Oksana, was born with ASD, “so she says, shame and stigma is something that really makes my blood boil – really any kind of inequity.”
Especially as a woman, she was not even fully aware of the shame she carried until she became an adult. When her modeling career took off in her twenties, she found herself traveling the world, staying in luxury accommodations, and still hiding all the period products she used in hotel bathrooms. If she ran away during the night, she would wash it off immediately, terrified that the cleaning ladies would find a stain.
But Vodianova’s period-related anger didn’t turn into activism until she made her first tech investment with the period tracker app Flo. As she used the app herself and spoke frequently with its founders, she realized that the shame surrounding women’s reproductive health followed women everywhere, regardless of their country or social class.
Then she uploaded an Instagram photo with a pad. It was really a publicity stunt: she was supporting a movie called Pad Man, about a man in India who made sanitary napkins for women and educated them against stigma. To publicize the photo, Vodianova was asked to post a selfie holding a sanitary napkin, a clean napkin, fresh out of the box. “And I got more comments than ever. But most of them were hateful comments,” she said.
Outrageous reactions of disgust and fury to the harmless image of a pad brought Vodianova to the point. She realized that this was a monumental misinformation problem, and that it came from supposedly educated people. There was work to be done here.
In the coming years, she will be founding a video series called “Let’s Talk About It. Period.”
“It is the basis of their well-being. If we don’t address that part of their life, then everything else falls apart. And above all to talk about women in crisis, women living in poverty and women in need.”
Today, she works with UNFPA to distribute “dignity kits” to girls and women in conflict zones. Last year, 59 countries received 1.4 million kits. These backpacks include disposable sanitary napkins, a set of reusable sanitary napkins, laundry detergent, bath soap, a pair of dark underwear, a flashlight (no batteries needed), a comb, a toothbrush and toothpaste. Those interested in helping the cause can fund a Dignity Kit for just $15.
“Period products shouldn’t be a luxury, should they?” “They are essentials. Because women don’t choose to bleed… We hide it somehow, and we’re like, “Oh, it’s okay. That’s my problem.” This is the world’s problem. Because half the population passes there.”
