While women are lauded and applauded for success, they are still compelled to render their periods invisible – month after month. A Dasra Report shows that the conversation around menstruation starts with shame – with 70% of mothers thinking of periods as ‘dirty’ and 71% girls having no knowledge of periods till their menarche. It isn’t surprising that most of these girls spend a lifetime following sub-optimal menstrual hygiene practices – affecting their emotional and physical well-being. It also doesn’t help that the category itself is stuck in a predictable loop of cliches, with periods being portrayed as a ‘problem that needs solving’.

Stayfree has been committed to making sure that sub-optimal pads never comes in the way of a young girl and her journey of progress. And time & again, we’d been confronted by the reality that providing superior hygiene products did not resolve the cultural tension trapping girls in a cycle of shame & silence. In a category that’s constantly trying to help girls ‘manage’ periods, Stayfree needed to unmute conversations around periods and normalise it. To do that, we needed to figure why do girls stay silent?

We discovered that shame and silence started from the very first conversation. And so, it was THAT conversation that needed to be done differently. Research showed us that period trauma starts at home - with the girl receiving lessons of silence & shame from her mother where she tells her daughter that periods are a woman’s problem, never to be discussed – especially with men, even her father. This lesson is reinforced by fathers looking the other way. These verbal and behavioural cues set the stage for a lifetime of challenges for a girl.

But if men talked about periods, will it need to be hidden at all? So, we decided to disrupt a generations-old belief system by bringing men into menstruation from the very first conversation.

Handicapped by years of absorbing taboos, fathers didn’t know where to start, so we tricked them into having the first conversation – challenging their conditioning and offering a helping hand. We staged an audition that featured fathers and daughters talking about periods. As the conversation progressed, we could visibly see the change set in. Dads were encouraged to choose discussion over denial and get over their awkwardness, fuelled by their love for their daughters.

On Daughter’s Day, we shared these auditions with the world so that fathers across the country could gain inspiration and resources. But we needed to engage fathers-daughters BEFORE the first conversation. Using a uniquely-immersive strategy of AWARENESS --> MOTIVATION --> EDUCATION, we engaged our target audience at every step of the process – across creation and amplification stages. Post the film, we helped fathers gain access to a unique workshop run by Menstrupedia, India’s leading resource on menstrual education. This month long workshop helped fathers and daughters learn about periods and helped fathers initiate the first conversation.