Nadya Okamoto is an entrepreneur and activist who has been working towards ending period poverty since she was 16. Missile enters the CEO's world of tampons and taboos

Illustration by Lily Dearman

Causing controversy on TikTok’s “For You Page”, 24-year-old Okamoto shares her monthly period with her three million followers, from public toilet tampon applications to trips to the doctor’s office for a colonic irrigation. Alongside her TikTok videos, the Harvard graduate feeds a gap in the menstrual market as the co-founder of her period product brand, August. With its educational videos and sustainable products, August was established in January 2020 as an inclusive collective for menstruators, aiming to identify gaps in period care and redefine “periods”.

These videos show Okamoto sitting on the toilet with her underwear around her knees, disposing of her blood-stained period pad and replacing it with a new one. She can often be found posing in her underwear, exhibiting her bloated, period belly, accessorised by a tampon string. “I often wonder why we, as a society, are so afraid to show menstrual blood. I regularly post videos of my menstrual blood and they blow up into viral controversies,” she tells Missile. “It still boggles my mind how something so natural can be controversial to talk about. Periods make human life possible yet society has convinced us that it is something to be ashamed of.”

Okamoto proudly showing off her tampon string to her three million TikTok followers

Video: Nadya Okamoto

Okamoto’s videos receive thousands of comments from young people celebrating their first period and asking questions about what products they should be using. The entrepreneur is transparent about menstruation and explains what bodily changes are to be expected, including breast swelling, constipation, and changes to blood colour. Her online profile is the result of years of campaigning, within which she has supported over 1.5 million menstruators in 50 countries and counting.

The activist’s period arrived when she was 12, which is the average age of first menstruation. Like many young girls uneducated on the menstrual cycle, Okamoto was horrified at the sight of her bleeding vagina. Fortunately, her mother later explained and congratulated her child on entering womanhood. Okamoto, her mother and two sisters found themselves in bouts of homelessness and financial crisis in Portland, Oregon after fleeing the domestic abuse they suffered in New York City. This move set Okamoto on the path to discovering her purpose.

In 2014, she struck up a conversation with a homeless woman who explained the process of making her own period products from rubbish, since she was in no financial position to be able to afford period care. Although Okamoto suffered financial hardship, she was surprised to hear that anybody had to do such a thing, since she had always been able to access period products. She explains that she had a “privilege check” and realised that something needed to be done for the women suffering in silence, without access to period care.

Period poverty activists promoting Okamoto's organisation, PERIOD. One of the posters reads "anything you can do, I can do bleeding"

Image: Nadya Okamoto

Okamoto launched her first business, PERIOD, when she was 16 in response to what she had witnessed. PERIOD is a youth-fuelled NGO that aims to eradicate period poverty by banishing stigmas and annually distributing millions of menstrual products for free to people in need. Okamoto and co-founder Vincent Forand created a web of students internationally who promote menstrual literacy at their schools and partner with distributors who support the organisation. She tells Missile about the importance of our discourse surrounding periods, “period stigma is rooted in the etymology of the language we use to talk about periods and bodies. The Bible frames menstruation as punishment and something to be ashamed of from the very beginning of the Old Testament in Genesis. People are still using euphemisms such as 'Aunt Flow' and 'that time of the month' to refer to their periods, which perpetuates the taboo,” she continues. Okamoto’s lasting message is that “we must start with talking freely about periods as the natural and powerful thing they are.” Here in the UK, it has recently been announced that the health retailer Boots is changing the name of the “feminine hygiene” aisle to “period products”, to help reduce stigma.

Okamoto stepped down in her role as Executive Director of PERIOD in 2020 but still oversees its success. The organisation continues to support menstruators suffering financial difficulties, even those in prison, and was a saving grace for many during the pandemic. An investigation by Forbes and PERIOD concluded that of the 1,010 teenagers they spoke to, 23% said they struggled to afford period products and 16% said that they had chosen to buy period products over food or clothes as a result of the pandemic.

During her time leading PERIOD, Okamoto ran for public office in Cambridge, Massachusetts at age 19, becoming the youngest Asian-American to run. Although she did not win a seat on the Cambridge City Council, she made historic waves of student turnout and achieved the most votes in the precincts around Harvard. Her interest in politics came after her own struggles with homelessness and a desire to make a change to people’s livelihoods. After much research, Okamoto discovered that the average market price of a single-family home in Cambridge was over $1.5 million, yet more than 45% of public school students in the area were from low-income families. She enlisted the help of her friends to go door-to-door in the community, explaining how they could help with matters of health care and climate change. She advises Missile readers with ambitions to make a change to “seek advice from mentors and professionals. Take the risk! Just make sure you find time for yourself to check in on your boundaries.”

August is Okamoto’s newest venture in the period realm, a lifestyle brand working to reimagine periods. On launching the brand, Okamoto explains that August wants to not only be “consumer-driven but consumer-built” to create something in response to the needs of menstruators. Okamoto and co-founder Nick Jain realised there was a gap in the market for Gen Z period care and wanted to create sustainable products and an impactful, educational platform. They started connecting with young people around the country on video calls and developed an online communication network called the “Inner Cycle”. August now sells sustainable period products, hosts an “Ask August” feature that raises questions about menstruation and continues to strive for period inclusivity as well as fight period poverty through the conversations had in the “Inner Circle”.

August period products can be found here

Image: Nadya Okamoto

August’s products are some of the most sustainable on the market and are fully biodegradable within 12 months, unlike the average tampon (or pad) which takes between 500 and 800 years to fully decompose if not made from 100% cotton. All Tampax tampons are wrapped in a plastic film and plastic can be found on the inside of tampons purchased from Superdrug’s standard range. August’s packaging is not plastic but made from the same material as compostable bags. The tampons themselves are BPA free and the whole supply chain is carbon neutral. The entire journey from cotton farms in Turkey to distribution centres in Pennsylvania can be read on the August website.

Okamoto’s transparency spans not only periods but her childhood and mental health. During a live speech in 2019, the activist explained her experience of child sexual abuse from her father. She was left with traumatic memories that led to Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and depression in her twenties. She explains that “I remind myself that I don’t have BPD because I’m screwed up, I have BPD because my body has had to go through terrible things that I didn’t have control over, and it developed BPD as a survival tactic.” She looks at her diagnosis as a sign of resilience rather than shame. Okamoto often discusses her battle with imposter syndrome and depression in her TikTok videos. The businesswoman says that she surrounds herself with a brilliant team who will hold her accountable and is a prime example that mental health struggles don’t have to get in the way of your success.

Okamoto sharing the intimate details of her childhood to help others come to terms with their trauma

Video: Nadya Okamoto

The young entrepreneur works tirelessly to destigmatise periods on her social media accounts and combats hate comments with education. Follow Okamoto at @nadyaokamoto on TikTok and Instagram to explore her unfiltered, period-positive world.