Katharina, nice to have you with us. Could you introduce yourself and Corvin briefly? What are you studying, what are your hobbies?

Yes, gladly. First of all, thank you very much, both from Corvin and from me, for inviting us and for this interview opportunity. I'm Katharina, I'm 23 years old. I study medicine here in Magdeburg (Germany), and I really like canoeing, road biking and bouldering. Corvin is a co-founder of Periodically and is also studying medicine in Magdeburg, he is 24 and also does a lot of sport.

Let's introduce the readers to Periodically! How did it come about in the first place? What specifically do you do and in which areas are you most active? And what makes Periodically so important?

Corvin and I founded the startup Periodically together. We developed dispensers for tampons and pads and now offer them together with menstrual products. How we came up with that is a very funny story. We didn't think, okay, we're going to start a startup now, what are we going to do? But it was really an event that led to it. I was at university and spontaneously got my period and didn't have any tampons or pads with me. And at that moment I asked myself why there was free toilet paper in the public toilets, but no tampons or pads, although they are as important. Then we thought about implementing this idea at our university. But there were simply no dispensers for tampons and pads. I was shocked because there are dispensers for everything, for chewing gum, for cigarettes, for earplugs... For everything, but not for tampons and pads.

Then we thought, okay, we'll just make the dispensers ourselves!

We sat down and designed and developed them together and now offer them to everyone else. Then to the point of why our mission is so important. This dispenser was actually the basis for being able to offer free tampons and pads and is therefore the basis for supporting people who are in financial need and cannot afford tampons and pads themselves. It is the basis for supporting people in emergency situations who, like me at the time, have suddenly got their period and are perhaps about to give a lecture or have an important meeting.

Our dispensers and our mission are also the basis for de-stigmatising and normalising menstruation.

You brought up the issue of period poverty. What was the moment when you realised that this is really a problem? How did it come about?

I first thought about it when I experienced it myself, as previously mentioned. Before that, I didn't really think much about the subject, but afterwards I did a lot more. I started researching: in Germany itself there are no studies on the topic of period poverty and how many are affected by it, but from Scotland and New Zealand there are some surveys and studies that clearly show that it is a big problem especially among students and really leads to many school children avoiding school or university because they cannot afford tampons and pads.

This has really encouraged us to continue and to push this issue.

With initiatives like Periodically, people finally see the problem. They come into a toilet and see these dispensers and say okay, maybe there's something to this. One reaction we often hear is "how can period poverty be a problem in Europe?" What do you think about this? What factors are at play here? You talked about schools and universities. Does something have to happen there as well?

In my view, period poverty is actually a vicious circle. It starts with young menstruators not being able to afford tampons and pads, or the family not having the financial means to do so. They then miss school. This naturally results in poorer educational qualifications and thus poorer career and job opportunities. On the one hand, this increases the period poverty of the person concerned, but it also leads to the fact that the children of these people also suffer from period poverty.

I think that the reason why people ask themselves how it can be that something like this exists here in Europe is because menstruation is so taboo and nobody talks about it.

Of course, poverty in general is already very taboo, but overall general poverty is talked about much more openly than period poverty. That is why many people do not know at all that this type of poverty exists. Of course, this is also a factor in this vicious circle, that there is hardly any support from outside, because the topic is so invisible.

Schools and universities, but especially schools, play a very important role.

These institutions have the opportunity to break this vicious circle by offering very low-threshold and also very low-cost products and thus improving equal opportunities. We heard from a headmaster who said that the school pays much less money for tampons, pads and dispensers than for toilet paper. This is also a very important message to all other institutions. That, as I said, it is very cheap, but it has a huge impact.

You sell your donors to many schools, universities and also public institutions. How do your dispensers work? What makes them so special?

Corvin and I have developed and designed our dispensers completely ourselves. This gave us the opportunity to consider all the important factors and incorporate them into our dispensers, which is why they are very practical.

For one thing, it is very easy to assemble. Any caretaker is able to do it. They are very hygienic. They are made of stainless steel and it is very easy to take a single pad or tampon. It is very important to us that they are free of charge. It doesn't need a coin insert or anything like that, which you would have to get from the secretary's office, which in turn would make it more inhibiting for menstruators. It is also super easy to fill up. It was very important to us that the refill works within about half a minute, so that our mission is not carried out on the backs of the cleaners. They are made in Germany, which is a huge advantage from an environmental perspective as well. They are very easy to use, and nothing can break because they are very stable. This also prevents vandalism.

You can really tell that you have taken all kinds of criticisms and concerns into account. What were the reactions to your dispensers?

The feedback has surprised us enormously because it has been so extremely positive.

The pupils and students are very happy about the dispensers, and there is reportedly little to no waste.

Many schools and universities that have installed our dispensers have subsequently made it into the newspapers or on television.

There are also some TikToks about our dispensers that have gone viral.

Each of them had over 1 million clicks, 200,000 likes, and 10,000 comments from other students, who also wanted to have dispensers in their schools. It's still extremely overwhelming.

Many people tell us that it is not only helpful to offer the products, but also to address the issue and to de-stigmatise it. So that it's not only the dispenser, but also the mission behind it that is so positive. We are still totally flashed by the positive feedback.

It sounds like it had a snowball effect from school to school! When it comes to problems, what did you encounter and how did you solve them?

Relatively early on, we applied for a start-up competition with our idea and were actually very optimistic that we would get through. But the conclusion was that the idea itself was not feasible. They described our idea as very social, but just not feasible. After that, we questioned ourselves.

But in the end we did it anyway, because we both knew what we were doing it for, and the mission behind it was also very important to us.

Especially when you are in the initial phase, you sometimes doubt yourself and your idea.

Now I'm sure many are grateful that you have continued. It's really quite remarkable to see that you kept going despite the initial doubts. Could you tell us about your greatest successes? And what are the latest developments?

We turned one year old a few weeks ago, which was of course a huge success, because at the beginning we didn't expect it to become something big.

In one year, we have sold dispensers to five different countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg, which is, of course, also a huge success for us.

We have already sold our dispensers to over 30 different universities and colleges in Germany alone, and also to some companies. What we actually value most as a success is the positive feedback, because that reinforces our mission once again.

In one city in Germany, a pilot phase was done in 10 schools for 6 months, and this pilot phase ended positively in February. Now the toilets in all schools in this city are equipped with free menstrual products. This is a huge success because the doubts that some people have about vandalism and so on are taken out of the way, and it is shown that this is really super important and can be done very well.

What have you learned this year with Periodically? What is your biggest lesson that you want to pass on to other initiatives in this field?

The biggest lesson was that if you see a problem, like there being no free tampons and pads, just address it and don't wait for anyone else to get upset about it and find a solution.

I've also noticed since then that I'm much more aware of problems in the world. When I see problems, I try to find a solution and not just get angry about it. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. We can’t wait to share your story. Finally, is there anything else you would like to share?

If schools, universities or anyone else reads this, they are of course welcome to contact us at any time and we will support them with the implementation and the preparation of a financial plan if they need it. ;)

Thank you so much Katharina! Here is the contact information for Periodically:

Instagram: its.periodically

E-mail: kontakt@periodically.de

Website: periodically.de