During my second semester as a sophomore, I took a semester studying abroad in Patagonia, Chile. I was there for about 4 months through a program called the Alzar School, there we did a lot of leadership skill building and outdoor adventures and expeditions like backpacking and whitewater rafting. The entire program was built on learning these leadership skills. At the end of the semester, they challenged us to come up with a project that combined one of our passions with the leadership skills we had just taken those four months to build.  We had to come up with a project that would tackle that issue in the community.

I started For the Flow over a year and a half ago and it’s a nonprofit organization that tackles period poverty. For anyone who is unfamiliar, period poverty is an inaccessibility to period products due to financial constraints. That also covers the inaccessibility or lack of education around women’s health and menstrual health.

For the Flow tackles period poverty through three separate facets: action, education and advocacy. The action component is getting period products to people who need them. We do that by distributing bulk amounts of period products, tampons, and pads to local organizations like women’s shelters, rehabilitation centers, and other local organizations that help women in need. We know that our impact is sustainable and real. The second piece is education. We try to bridge that gap and that lack of education, especially with younger girls in the community by dismantling the stigma around periods and making it more comfortable to talk about periods and women’s bodies. We make it so that girls have the space, time, and comfort in asking questions like, what is it like having their first period. The last piece is advocacy. We try to do that by advocating for free period products. Our goal is to advocate for legislation that makes period products free because at the end of the day that’s what they should be in my eyes. Last year a bill passed in Ohio that all schools private and public had to provide period products to anyone in grades 6-12. A lot of schools weren’t implementing that. We tried to fill that gap there and connect the schools to the funds provided by the Ohio government. Although there were funds available, the government didn’t do the best job advertising that. For the Flow connected that bill to schools locally. We’ve worked with Shaker, Laurel and Beachwood.

I have always been super passionate about women’s rights, and I go to an all girls school so it’s always been engrained in me. My mom is also a super big advocate for women’s education. I knew immediately when I was prompted with this challenge that I wanted to do something with women’s rights. I’m also super invested in younger girls’ and women’s healthcare. It started out broadly, I thought maybe I could just educate the public on women’s health because it’s not that widely talked about but the more research I did and the more people I talked to especially locally and around Cleveland, I realized people don’t have access to normal products like tampons and pads. Of course, I haven’t had to deal with that problem myself and I come from a really privileged place, but I wanted to use that to bridge the gap and make an impact in my community. That’s what lead me to start For the Flow. I came back to Laurel joined the Capstone class with Mr. Corsaro. With all of those resources we sort of fell into how I can make a tangible impact and I ended up starting an organization and as it grew it became a 501(c)(3). I developed a website and made so many new connections. I just followed that entrepreneurial path and that’s how I started.

My overall goal with For the Flow is to reach as many women as possible in the Northeast Ohio community with period products and to help as many people as I can. And this is broader, but I also want to make it so that people are more comfortable talking about periods and women’s bodies because at the end of the day, half the population gets a period if not more. I think just being able to talk about not even just periods but women’s bodies – talking about that can be so taboo and it’s just basic healthcare.

I don’t want to sound like every other cliche entrepreneur but honestly, just becoming comfortable with failure has been something that has been so valuable to me especially with starting this nonprofit. Of course, starting a business, you’re going to fail but with a nonprofit it’s a lower risk. If I lose money, I’m not losing profit. I get to figure out how to bounce back with a lower risk.

I’ve done so many things where I’ll speak, and it doesn’t stick with someone, or people feel uncomfortable. I’m a seventeen-year-old girl talking about periods and not everyone is comfortable with that and that’s totally okay. Since I started this organization, it’s really been about becoming comfortable with failing and people giving me weird looks and not liking my idea. I’ve learned about failing and then using it as fuel to try harder and persevere through that and figuring out ways that my ideas will stick with others instead of taking that failure as an idea that maybe I shouldn’t do this. I think that’s honestly been one of the most valuable things I’ve learned from this whole entrepreneurial process.

I participated in the Kent State University Pitch Competition, and I competed against nine other Northeast Ohio high schoolers pitching their ideas. Something funny about that is I was the only nonprofit there. All the other businesses were profit-making businesses. I went into it a little skeptical, I thought I wouldn’t make too much success or traction with it because I’m not a for-profit business, but I ended up giving my pitch. The judges asked me questions like what’s my source of revenue and my target market. I was able to answer them confidently and clearly and I ended up winning so that was a great opportunity, and I made so many good connections.

I’m in the process of figuring that out right now. I really want to leave it at Laurel and leave the legacy there, but I also want to take it with me wherever I go to college. I’m trying to get together a team of girls, 9-12 graders, to sustain For the Flow at Laurel. I will also serve as Executive Director of the organization. I would be an overseer, but I also really want to help girls with the passion of continuing For the Flow and period poverty and what I’ve done so far but also let them take over the business operations and have them learn entrepreneurial skills that I have had to learn by running a business. I want to be an overseer wherever I end up at school next year and see where I can make an impact in the community I end up in.

I’m always looking for volunteers and people willing to help with tasks. Last weekend, I had an event with Medwish and Medworks, and I donated over 5,000 period products to hundreds of women there. It’s a free dental and medical clinic where anyone who needs healthcare can come and get it. I set up a stand there and handed out bags of period products – any events like that, I’m open to volunteers. Monetary donations are always welcome too. I have a website that’s www.fortheflow.org. I’ve really been trying to work on my advocacy work and where I can grow in that aspect. Any connections or anyone who is interested in advocacy legislation I would love to talk to and see how I can get more into that direction.

What I would say is just to start small. I know when I started For the Flow, I had so many ideas and I was like, “I’m going to do this, this, this, and that.” Which is all great and I still want to accomplish all those goals but it’s about honing in on and being mindful and methodical about what’s one impact I can make or one goal that I can set and how I can get there initially, whether it’s making a certain number of dollars or selling a certain number of products or helping a certain number of women. I think setting one goal and being super specific and methodical at first really set me up with a great foundation to grow. That’s what I would tell anyone who’s starting a business, especially my age. Start small, start specific, and then set yourself up with a good foundation that you can grow from and make as many connections as you can.

100 percent. If you were to ask me a few months ago, I was so set on studying biology and I wanted to go to med school for my undergraduate degree and become a doctor my whole life. Since starting For the Flow, and really honing into this business, entrepreneurship and all things business management, I have kind of fallen in love with the business world. Over the summer I did a course at Harvard which was about public speaking, and I have made so many connections there. Starting For the Flow, not only gave me the opportunity to be a business owner but I also got to talk to so many people who are in the business world and get an insight into what their careers are like. I just realized that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life and after I finish college where I would like to study finance and entrepreneurship, I want to start my own profit-making business.