She’s a businesswoman, a celebrated designer & artist, an innovator and a dear friend of One Girl. For Menstrual Hygiene Day 2021, we sat down for a
cup of soup with Roz Campbell, founder of sustainable sanitary product social enterprise - Tsuno - for an in-depth, inspirational chat about menstrual hygiene, art and inspiration.
MH Day’s Vision 2030 is ‘to create a world where no woman or girl is held back because she menstruates by 2030’, could you please start by sharing your thoughts and insights on this vision? What do you see as the challenges and opportunities to achieve this vision?
Imagine if the same resources, minds and media attention that were directed to space travel or sport or literally anything else, were also directed to this vision?
The obvious challenge that stands out to me is the taboo around menstruation. A quote by Kiran Gandhi I came across whilst doing research recently stuck with me, “What I’ve learned over the past few months is that taboo removes the vocabulary for people to talk about their own bodies, if you can’t talk about the problem, how can you talk about the solution?”
So that for me is the starting point.
I am in a very happy period positive bubble here in Tsuno land, but I know that is not the reality for most of the rest of the world. I do feel positive about what’s coming. Just eight years ago when I started Tsuno, I was turned away by so many media outlets who told me that no one wanted to hear about periods, all of whom have since written about the company, or periods in some form or another. Innovative new products are emerging, the large multinational companies that have dominated the market for so long have started selling more sustainable products, governments and companies are recognising the importance of making products available in schools and workplaces. I think it’s possible!
In 2021, MH Day and partners are calling for more action and investment towards menstrual hygiene and education. What action would you like to see happen from governments and institutions to end period poverty?
Many governments around the world have started to recognise that period poverty exists and is holding people back, which is great...finally! It’s a great start in Australia that the GST has been removed, and that many states are starting to fund access to products in schools. Next would be for this to happen worldwide.
I would also love to see sustainable products being prioritised, and also investment in innovation and manufacturing. Make a fund available to help support research and development of new, sustainable products!
Do you have any advice for the local and international community on action to end period stigma?
You don’t have to start a campaign that takes over every waking hour, just talk about it freely. If you bleed, talk about it. If you don’t bleed, talk about it. I don’t believe we need to be overly positive or overly negative about periods, we just need to talk more.
The MH Day campaign in 2021 has collaborated with six artists from around the world to produce multilingual campaign materials. As someone who collaborates with artists often, can you please tell us a bit about some of the artists you’ve collaborated with - any highlights? What was the inspiration behind this innovative move?
There were a few things that originally formed the inspiration to collaborate with artists on our packaging. Firstly, the existing product landscape, when I was first researching nine years ago, made me feel very uninspired. It was either super bold and heavily branded, or really medical-looking and bland, especially for the eco products. I wanted something that was positive, that would make someone feel like they were doing something special for themselves (and for other women who their purchase was helping too).
I also had this great idea that I would change the package every month, so each new period a customer had, they would have this nice little process of opening a box and discovering a new designer. I am still way off being able to order a bulk order every month, and the amount of work involved to do that right now seems a little crazy, but I would still love to achieve it one day. With a growing company, I could at least hire someone to help with those logistics!
Pleasantly, what has happened as a result of this, is that our period products have now started to cross over into new realms or industries and we have artists and other brands talking about pads, tampons and period poverty as a result.
I have many highlights, but one that comes to mind right now is a collaboration I did with the fashion label Obus - we had one of their designs printed on our boxes, they sold our pads in their stores and we had opened up the conversation about our products to a huge new audience. They also supported the ASRC [Asylum Seeker Resource Centre] at the same time by matching all the products sold in their store. The other thing that has pleasantly happened is, I’ve been told, as well as spotting them myself, people are displaying their pads and tampons out in the open on counters and shelves instead of hiding them in a drawer. I say that is a win for smashing the period taboo!
You’ve always acknowledged One Girl’s work when you talk about your story (thank you!) and have been an Ambassador and DIIAD fundraiser as well, what does it mean to you to be a cherished and valued partner of One Girl today?
It’s like being part of a family! It’s been so nice to see the organisation grow and evolve over the years, alongside the growth of my own business. It’s very personal, and I like that a lot.
Sustainability and innovation are at the centre of your product design and your way of doing business, could you please share your thoughts on why girls’ education (including MHM) is critical to climate action?
My formal education has been part of my life up till this day. I personally love the opportunities my education has presented to me, and how my mind and creativity has evolved as a result of learning.
I think the main thing that stands out to me (although I am not an expert) in terms of girls’ education and climate action is that the more access to education a girl has, the more choice she has over the direction of her life, her body, her choice to have children and how many. And if she then has the head space and skills to be able to think of new ways to tackle MHM or climate change as a result, then that is fantastic!
Could you please share with us some of your plans for the future, even just a sneak peek?
Well, right now I am in the final two weeks of my uni degree that I started about 10 years ago, and which I dropped out of to start Tsuno! I went back a few years ago and have been slowly chipping away at it and for the last year, have been working on a research and design project looking at a reusable menstrual product. I might be out searching for some of that funding that hopefully comes available for innovative sustainable menstrual product development (hint hint to the Australian Government if you’re reading) ;)
Find out more about Tsuno - on their website and on Instagram and on Facebook.
Here’s how you could be a One Girl Business Partner: https://www.onegirl.org.au/ways-to-donate/become-a-one-girl-business-partner
