Nadya Okamoto - Ending PERIOD poverty & stigma, Author of PERIOD POWER, Co-founder of August
Nadya Okamoto is a 22-year-old Harvard student. In early 2020, Okamoto co-founded August, a lifestyle brand working to reimagine periods. As the Today Show describes, “August is a growing online community aiming to "re-imagine and redefine the period experience to be powerful and dignified," with members who engage in conversations about how to properly use menstrual cups or what it's like to be a transgender man having a period, for example.”
Nadya is also the Founder of PERIOD (period.org), an organization fighting to end period poverty and stigma that she founded at the age of 16. Under her leadership as Executive Director for five years, PERIOD addressed over 1.5 million periods and registered over 800 campus chapters in all 50 states and 50 other countries. In 2017, Nadya ran for public office in Cambridge, MA at age 19 — at the time, becoming the youngest Asian American to run.
In 2018, Nadya published her debut book, Period Power: A Manifesto for the Menstrual Movement. She has been recognized on the lists of Forbes 30 under 30, Bloomberg 50 “Ones to Watch” and People Magazine's Women Changing the World.
In this episode we chat about her experience with trauma and PTSD, dealing with backlash and being "canceled", holding herself accountable and finding her identity, and why she is so passionate about ending period poverty.