Our Story
In 2012, while working in Uganda, co-founder Diana Sierra was stunned to see girls dropping out of school because they had nothing to manage their periods. After digging more deeply into the problem, she found that supplies like books and shoes were important, but they had far less impact when the very nature of a girl’s gender was being ignored, denied or degraded. It quickly became obvious that without addressing this fundamental challenge, gender inequality would persist, starting in the classroom and seeping into every aspect of a girl’s life as she grows into womanhood.
After working side-by-side with the girls, she found that the problem went beyond access to conventional sanitary supplies - they needed something designed precisely to work with their bodies, cultural practices, and available resources. After several prototype iterations were tested and improved upon with the girls, our signature colorful, hybrid design with the waterproof bottom and mesh pocket emerged. Diana knew immediately that she developed a revolutionary product when one of the girls joyfully commented, “What I like best -- it makes me proud to be girl!”
Inspired by the sentiment and founded on the belief that it is the right of every girl to be proud every day of the month, Be Girl was established in 2014 as a social enterprise. Be Girl is dedicated to meeting the needs of the more than 250 million adolescent girls lacking access to appropriate, high-performance menstrual products necessary to promote autonomy and empowerment while preserving the environment.
