1 in 5 menstruating youth cannot afford period products. 1 in 10 miss school due to a lack of menstrual resources. The catalysts to it all: shame and stigma around the subject of menstruation. 

Senior Mia Haskins has unraveled a new chapter of the Happy Period movement on Sage Creek’s campus. Happy Period Club has become a local solution to the global issue of period poverty, a medical term defined as insufficient access to essential menstruation and sanitization products. 

Originally inspired by the Happy Period chapter at Carlsbad High School, Haskins found the need for a solution to this worldwide issue at Sage. 

“[The club] has created an inclusive bobcat body, overflowing with support,” Haskins said. 

Happy Period Club has already impacted the local community through its distribution of menstrual product care packages.

“We have created over 300-period packs for [the homeless community] which are pads, tampons, masks and a handwritten, encouraging note in a reusable bag,” Haskins added. “The encouraging note is really beneficial; I think it adds a really personal touch to it.”

AP English Language & Composition teacher and Happy Period Club advisor Shannon Alberts was reached out to by the club’s officer board and found their drive for the subject to be part of why she chose to join their mission. 

“It’s a really great group of kids that just want to help out the community and so that was a no-brainer for me to say yes,” Alberts said. “I really don’t have to do anything because they’re so motivated and so passionate about this cause.” 

Solidarity toward the movement has encouraged healthy habits, aiming to change the fact that 2.3 billion people do not have access to sanitization services. Globally, there are 500 million women and girls that do not have access to menstrual hygiene management facilities. 

More broadly, California has acted against period poverty in public schools and colleges by requiring free menstrual products to be at disposal according to AB-367 in October of 2021. “Pink tax” – a tax on period as a luxury item, named after frequent usage of pink to market products to women. The tax was repealed, an effort to end the average $20 million a year that women would spend on menstrual products. 

With approximately 115 members, the club consists of participants of all genders that share the common goal of the distribution of essential resources to women. Amnesty Club co-presidents Neel Gaitonde and Darin Brion led a joint packing event with Happy Period Club. Gaitonde and Brion have found the experience to be rewarding as the collaborative event put together 100 care packages. 

“We were able to work together and bring together different groups of people to do something bigger,” Gaitonde said. “It’s an issue that doesn’t get enough attention.” 

Although the club is only a year old, it has become an essential part of Sage Creek’s culture of care. The club’s Instagram, @happyperiodclubschs, exemplifies the flourishing community with vibrant photos of their care packages and the positivity of their participants at its core. 

Happy Period Club meets on the first Tuesday of each month in Mrs. Alberts’ classroom, room 2304. The club offers a variety of events, often packaging parties which draw in a large crowd of participants, a strength of the club. Their most recent donation drive was toward the end of January from which they collected a plethora of period products to be donated to those in need after the Tonga natural disaster. 

“[The club] creates a safe and comfortable environment and community and also spreads awareness and ends to taboo against something that is completely natural and nothing to be ashamed of,” Haskins said. “Hopefully [the club] continues for years to come.”