Chaddi Innovation Is Here! Ladies, Your Tampon Days Might Just Be Over.

The conversation around periods is moving towards a gradual change, slowly shedding its stigma-stained status to inspire video games and street art, with even the upsides and physicality of being on your period being hilariously discussed in these posters. Twin sisters Radha and Miki Agrawal, along with their friend Antonia Dunbar, are the newest ladies on the stigma-free bandwagon who are effecting real change: they have designed the self-absorbing THINX underwear, that discards the need for tampons and pads altogether. No really, it’s true. And men who don’t know what the fuss is all about, just read on anyway because this is the kind of product design the world needs and everybody should know about it!
”Women in our culture don’t want to talk about their periods — most still think about it as crass and disgusting,” Miki Agrawal, CEO and founder of of the innovative self-absorbing THINX underwear, told Forbes. “I want to change the culture around women’s most normal time of month — and not while wearing grandma panties or pads that feel like a diaper.” 

The THINX Story from Thinx on Vimeo.

It’s liberating to be able to talk about a monthly reality at long last, but we all know that along with the stigma surrounding periods and the mood swings, it’s  the physical discomfort that can get the most cumbersome. Besides the cramps, issues such as the lack of access to feminine hygiene products are very much a real problem, especially in a developing country like ours. In India, over 95% of women in rural areas still use old cloths instead of sanitary products leading to diseases and infections. The product these girls have created though, is a great step that might be able to reform the conditions of this disproportionate statistic, and give girls a chance to do whatever they want even on their heaviest days.

So these miracle panties, made by women in Sri Lanka, come in three different style - thong, cheeky or hip-hugger, and the girls’ patented technology, THINX QuadTECH, consists of four layers; ‘first is a moisture-removing layer, then a stain-resistant anti-microbial layer, then the equivalent of a pad, that “can hold up to 2 to 6 teaspoons of blood (or blue liquid, if you’re shooting a sanitary pad commercial),” followed lastly by a leak-resistant layer’. Even better -  you can throw them in into the cold cycle of the washing machine, with a hand-rinse recommended beforehand.

THINX has really thought the various aspects, both social and practical, surrounding the issue through as they are actively working towards minimising the financial and environmental toll periods have, as millions of pads, tampons and hygiene products end up in landfills without proper disposal. THINX has also created an association with AFRIpads, a Ugandan NGO that manufactures and distributes washable, reusable pads to women in need. ‘For every pair of period panties sold, THINX donates the money for seven pads to AFRIpads, allowing women and girls on their period to go to school and work,’ Mic reports. This is especially important, as according to a report on menstruation, some girls in Uganda end up missing almost 11% of their academic year because of their periods.

This truly is a game changer when you realise that since the tampon in 1931, there have been no real innovations to do with menstruation. THINX has already raised millions of dollars in venture capital funding and they intend to keep their business online in order to “control our brand, our story,” Agrawal told Forbes, and shares that they hope to disrupt the multibillion-dollar feminine hygiene products industry, with the first real alternative available to women in over 80 years; a product that will hopefully change countless lives and liberate periods from being discussed in hushed tones, so we can finally just accept it for what it is.
’Protective, comfortable and cute’ is how they describe THINX underwear. We’re not going to say no to that.