My 16 and 18-year-old kids like to tease me about my childhood and teen years, because it is so vastly different than their upbringing. Every now and then, I will reveal something that will make them exclaim “wow, you were poor.” Those memories are funny now, but they were not then. I recall being a broke college student working a part-time job and spending an afternoon searching for enough soda cans and beer bottles to collect a dollar in nickel deposits. I just needed enough money to buy a cheap box of maxi pads from the 99-cents store, because I wasn’t getting paid for another two days. Luckily, I only had to do that once but that’s not the reality for so many menstruators today.
Period poverty consists of three components: lack of proper education about menstruation; lack of access to private and clean facilities to perform menstrual hygiene; and finally, the inability to buy period protection products. Brooklyn Public Library’s Cycle Alliance is a Teen Period Advocacy Group dedicated to fighting period poverty and removing the stigma of talking about periods. This year we are hosting our annual Pink Moon Celebration with a month-long period protection donation drive from March 14-April 5, 2023. On Friday, April 7, there will be Period Product Distribution and Teen DIY Arts & Crafts Hour from 4:00-5:00 PM.
Visit the Central Library’s Youth Wing all month to donate. We are accepting donations of:
- New and wrapped re-usable period underwear
- New and wrapped menstrual cups
- New/unopened boxes of maxi pads and tampons
- Lose, individually wrapped tampons and maxi pads
- Disposable period panties
The Cycle Alliance has also teamed up with the library’s biggest free Teen Party, Urban Art Jamm! Attendees to the April 22nd event are encouraged to donate period products to support our period pantry.
This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.
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