WEBVTT - Amanda Calabrese: Redesigning the Tampon for Athletes 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.120 Welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Amanda Calabrese. 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:17.240 Welcome back to she Pivots, the podcast where women share 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:22.000 bold career moves and personal turning points that changed everything. 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:25.120 I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:32.680 Picture a middle school aged girl at a swim meet 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:36.639 in a bathing suit, preparing for the big race. Her 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:39.839 period just started that morning, She's never used a tampon, 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:42.600 and the team captain tells her figure it out in 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:45.760 the next thirty minutes or you're off the relay. That 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:48.440 girl grew up to re engineer the tampon for the 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:52.800 first time in almost one hundred years. Amanda Calabreeze is 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:56.640 a nine time national champion in life saving, a Stanford 0:00:56.680 --> 0:01:01.200 Train product design engineer, and a co founder and of Sequel, 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:05.400 the company behind the first spiral tampon created to fulfill 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:09.120 a very real need for female athletes. Today, we'll talk 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:12.280 with Amanda about how her experience as an elite athlete 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:16.320 inspired her to rethink something as seemingly simple as a tampon. Now, 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:19.640 SEQL is in locker rooms and stadiums from middle schools 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:24.280 to Oudyfield and Yankee Stadium. This is Amanda Calabrese, and 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:29.280 this is how she pivots. 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:31.520 What is your name and what do you do? 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:34.840 My name is Amanda Calabrese, and I am the co 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:36.760 founder and CMO of Sequel. 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:39.760 Tell us about little Amanda, Like, what was your family like? 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:42.119 We've established that your dad is like the eye doctor 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:44.600 of town. Yes, big lifeguard family, but like, what was 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:45.520 your family like? 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:46.400 Like, tell us all about it. 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:49.520 Yeah, I grew up in East Hampton, New York, which 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:54.640 is very known as the hotspots summer destination in New York. 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:58.200 But I think I didn't really appreciate how idylic it 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:01.720 was until I left. But I had the most idyllic 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:05.440 beach childhood. I think I blacked out the winters when 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:07.440 it was cold and I had to go to the 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:09.639 pool and go to swimming and things like that. But 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:12.240 we spent almost every day at the beach, and my 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:16.320 dad lifelong surfer. My mom loves the ocean, loves the beach. 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:20.080 My parents, they've had generations of family on the eastern 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:22.680 end of Long Island, and so it's a very family 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:26.800 community vibe. Little Avanda couldn't get out of the water. 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:29.359 I wanted to surf like my dad so badly. My 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.440 dad is my hero was my hero, and so in 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:34.840 order to be able to learn to surf and get 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:37.320 into the ocean, I had to negotiate with my mom 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:40.320 on that one to get surfing as young as possible, 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:42.720 and so to do that it was spending long hours 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:45.280 at the beach, learning how to swim, getting comfortable in 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:47.960 the ocean, being a junior lifeguard. Those are some of 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:48.960 my earliest memories. 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:51.880 The influx in the summer, I feel like, is so 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:54.720 defining of the town, of the region. 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:56.880 Was it a big factor for you or not? Really? 0:02:57.520 --> 0:02:58.480 When you are a. 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:02.920 Year round resident any Hampton, summer is everything. The spring 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:05.800 is this opening up period, and it's this excitement and 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:08.959 it's building week after week until you get to Memorialdy 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:11.239 weekend and then all of a sudden, it's summer. It 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:15.600 switches on and it's busy, it's exciting, the weather's nice, 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:18.480 there's all these interesting, amazing people coming in from around 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:21.120 the world. It's like a light switches and we go 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:24.640 from sleepy town to the center of the world. You 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:26.320 could say, for a few weeks of the year. 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:28.000 Do you have siblings. 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.280 Have a younger brother, is he also into life guarding 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:32.200 and swimming and surfing. 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:35.760 We're very different. But he was a lifeguard. He swam 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:38.120 his whole life. That is something that is so core 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.440 to our family, our identity. It's the water, the ocean. 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:45.640 He's an ai engineer, he went to MIT. He's very smart, 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:48.320 very cerebral, and he did all of those things. But 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:51.600 now he's very focused on his work. When I think 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:54.280 about the eastern end of Long Island and the family, 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:56.720 I'm like air quoting right now. It's the community that 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:02.040 I was born into. It's this community of lifeguards, community 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:04.640 around my dad being the eye doctor in town and 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:07.000 everybody knowing him and him walking down the street and 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:07.760 people being. 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:09.280 Like doctor calbaryes, how are you? 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:12.760 And I didn't realize how lucky I was to be 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:15.880 born into a family that made an impact in the. 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:17.960 Place in which they resided. 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.720 You went to Stanford, so you obviously did very well 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:25.719 in school. Was being smart, being good at school? Being driven? 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:27.320 Were those things that came naturally to you? 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:34.039 I was always very ambitious and pushed myself very hard. 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:37.480 My mom was always the one to say, I am 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:39.840 not the one pushing you. As long as you do 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:42.320 your very best, that is good enough for me. And 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:46.840 if your very best is a getting second place, if 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:49.560 it's getting tenth place, if it's doing your absolute best, 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:50.520 and that's good enough for me. 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:53.000 But I was always pushing myself. 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:55.480 I think at an early age I had these really 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:59.400 amazing experiences that opened up my world and showed me 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:01.960 that there was a huge world outside of East Hampton. 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:06.240 I competed for this competition. It was for like I 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:08.960 think it was like eleven twelve year olds bringing them 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:09.400 to Italy. 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:11.080 It was kids of Italian heritage. 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:13.919 You could be from the US or from Canada, from 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:16.880 all over the world bringing back this Italian I asked 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.640 for to compete as kids in I was competing in 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:21.920 track and I met all these kids from all over 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:25.159 the world, learned about their lives and what they were 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:27.479 doing where they were from, and that I think that 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:29.880 changed everything for me. I was like, you know, I 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:32.000 love where I grew up and this is amazing, but 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:34.159 there's a whole world out there that I need to 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:35.880 see and I need to work as hard as I 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:39.960 possibly can, whether that be in school, in sports, anything 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:41.520 that I do, so that I can explore it and 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:42.600 have these opportunities. 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:46.560 You joined the National Life Saving team while you were 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.039 still in high school, which is not a sport that 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:51.520 a lot of people know anything about, including me, until 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:52.320 we did this research. 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:54.120 So how were you exposed to it? 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:56.120 Like did you say as soon as you started lifeguarding, 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:57.640 You're like, I want to be on the national team? 0:05:57.640 --> 0:05:59.479 Like was that the goal? Was it other sports? 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:01.000 Did you think you were going to be a professional 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:02.960 athlete in a variety of different sports. 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:06.599 I think that aspirations like these always come from a 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:07.280 role model. 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:07.880 You hear it. 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:10.520 I went athletes to interviews, They're like, I looked up 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:13.800 to this athlete. Or you hear soccer players, they're like 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.560 the ninety nine ers, right, they always have. I hear 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:21.440 a lot about nine. Everybody has that significant role model. 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.760 And for me, I was lucky enough that my role 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:28.080 model was spending time and investing in me. It wasn't 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.200 like I'm watching her on TV or I had a 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:33.320 direct relationship with my role model. And when I was 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:35.479 very young, she was my babysitter, and then when I 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.240 became older, she was my junior lifeguard instructor. So I 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:41.240 joined the Junior Life Card program in East Hampton when 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:41.600 I was. 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:42.760 Seven years old. 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:45.000 It started started at nine at the time, but I 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.800 kind of hung alongside the big kids, ran along them 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:49.240 at the beach. Wanted to be a part of it 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:51.520 so badly so that I could go and learn to 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:52.279 surf with my dad. 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:53.839 That was the deal I made with my mom. 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:56.040 If you join the Junior Life Card program, if you 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:58.839 become strong in the ocean, you can go surf with dad. 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:02.080 But my junior life art instructor was this incredible woman 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:06.760 named Emily, and she was competing as a lifeguard, and 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:09.279 she was training for Nationals, and she was training for 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:11.840 this event called Beach Flags, which was ultimately the event 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:15.840 that I did. She had consistently competed and like almost 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:18.680 one almost got there. And I remember the year that 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:20.640 I was in her junior lifeguard group. She was like, 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.280 I'm going to win the national championships this year, and 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:25.640 so are you. You're eleven, You're going to compete in 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:27.680 the nine ten eleven group, the C group. I'm going 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:29.680 to bring you to Nationals with me in Florida and 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.880 we're both gonna win. I'm like eleven years old, sprinting 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:36.200 up behind her on these sand dunes, trying to keep 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:38.000 up with her. I mean, obviously I couldn't. She was 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:40.440 so strong and I just remember her being like the 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:43.560 strongest woman I knew. And when we went to Florida together, 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:46.240 I competed first. She was coaching me on the sidelines, 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:48.520 probably the only eleven year old that had a coach 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:50.480 screaming while she's competing. 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:52.360 I won, and then three. 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:56.120 Days later she competed one Open Nationals for the first 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:59.160 time and was asked to be on the US national team. 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:01.600 She was invited to compete at a World Cup event 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:04.080 in Japan. I watched her go to that event, and 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:06.240 then when she came back, she gave me a piece 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:09.520 of like I think it was like Australia national team gear, 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:11.960 and from that moment I was like, this is the 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:13.320 goal that I need to accomplish. 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:15.520 How did you train for it? Like, what does training 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:15.920 look like? 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:18.240 Also, for those who are not in this room, you're 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:19.760 not the tallest of athletes. 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:22.000 Oh no, no, no, And that was quite advantageous to 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:26.000 my event. Interest in life saving it started in Australia 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:28.560 as a way to keep their skills at a prime 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:31.760 and then also keep them interested in lifeguarding. In Australia, 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:34.880 they have different clubs at different beaches and the different 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:37.360 beaches would compete against each other, almost like a track 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:39.240 me Right, you go to the beach and there's beach 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:42.560 events land events, much like track and field. You would 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:44.520 put your skills to the test, and it's like a 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.440 placement kind of thing, so there's no time. It's just 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:51.960 whoever gets out around Buoi's or and in the fastest, 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.839 and then whoever's the fastest on the sand. The thing 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:56.600 that I loved the most about it, and the thing 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:58.679 that keeps your skills sharp as a lifeguard, is that 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:01.000 you never know what the conditions are going to look 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.160 like when you show up at the beach. I've had 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.760 competitions where we're on the Adriatic and it's completely flat, 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:07.920 and that was in Italy for the World Championships in 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.800 twenty twenty two. I've had competitions where we flew all 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:11.760 the way to South Africa. 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:13.040 We were on the beach in Durban. 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:15.720 It was like six to eight feet ten foot sets 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:18.840 and we were breaking paddle boards in half. So some 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:20.760 of the events can be you know, swimming in the 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:23.880 open water around booys, and then in there's paddle board races, 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:26.280 which is something that I did and trained a lot for, 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:29.200 so you're paddling a board out and around Bowie's and in, 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:31.200 and then you know you could be in last place, 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:33.520 you could be in fifth place. You could catch a 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:38.240 massive wave because your skills in the surf are the best, 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:40.720 and you were able to seize the moment and catch 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.760 the wave, you could speed ahead and win. My event 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.840 is the least environmentally dependent, but the most I would 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:51.400 say tactical. It's called beach flags. And what you do 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:55.120 is line up facing one direction on the sand kind 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:57.600 of pronated, with your hands on top of each other 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:00.240 and your elbows out. And it's a reaction test. So 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:02.040 you're a lifeguard, you're on the lifeguard stand, you say 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:03.880 heads up, you have to react and get ready to 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:06.400 make a rescue. In beach lags, they say you're now 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:08.800 in the hands of the starter, heads down, and then 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.160 they blow a whistle and you have to get up, 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:13.840 turn around, and run twenty five meters in the opposite 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:16.600 direction as fast as you possibly can, dive and get 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:18.520 a stick, and if you don't get one, you're out. 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:23.320 And so the tactical planning and nature of it comes 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:27.080 from knowing who's next to you, knowing how far you 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:30.280 have to run, conserving energy. Sometimes you're doing twelve rounds 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.160 until a final. Sometimes you're doing twenty and we go 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:36.240 one by one until you are head to head in 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:40.080 the finals against one other woman and you're almost rugby 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:42.160 diving for the final stick. 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:43.880 WHOA wild. 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:46.800 When you started lifeguarding, your goal was to be able 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:48.720 to surf with your dad. I mean, did you end 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:50.320 up surfing at all? Or did you just sort of 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:51.239 day lifeguarding. 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:54.640 Surfing is still a really important part of my life, 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:58.120 and yes, that was why I started the junior lifeguard program, 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:00.400 and it fulfilled all those needs for me. I was 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.400 able to learn to surf, surf with my dad, have 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:06.880 that be something that was outside of competing. That's what 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:09.040 it became for me. A lot of my friends growing 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:11.680 up were competing and surfing, and my parents were very 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:14.360 firm that if I was going to put my all 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:18.080 into making the national team competing in life saving, I 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:21.080 needed something that wasn't competitive that I just did for 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:22.120 the joy of it. 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:24.480 Did you compete in other sports as well or they 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:25.440 were like focus on one. 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:28.800 I competed in all of the middle school high school sports. 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.640 I swam all year round, I played field hockey, I 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:34.880 ran track, But all of those things were in service 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:39.240 of achieving this overarching goal of doing what Emily did 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:40.400 and making the national team. 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:43.600 Yeah, just to foreshadow a little bit here, the community 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.360 nonprofit program that we stood up at Gotham is called 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:51.160 Keep Her in the Game, specifically to keep girls in 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.760 whatever sport they're playing as their bodies change. So agees 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:58.560 like eight to fourteen, because that statistically is the age 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:01.079 where girls bodies change. They don't know how to handle it. 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:03.480 There's not coaching support because our coaches don't know how 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:05.920 to handle it, and so girls drop out. You clearly 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:09.160 didn't drop out, but how did you manage that with 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.400 your body changing and sticking in the same sport you 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:13.240 had been in when suddenly your body might be doing 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:14.480 something different than it had before. 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:17.080 It's really hard to grow up in a sport where 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:21.840 there's so much focus on your body because you're wearing 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:24.520 a bikini. I was eleven years old wearing a two 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:27.320 piece bathing suit competing at the National Championships. When I 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:31.120 made the national team, I was sixteen wearing a red, 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:35.600 white and blue bikini competing at the World Championships. I 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:40.240 distinctly remember going through those changes of you know, wanting 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:42.680 to wear my uniform, but not feeling comfortable in my body, 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.280 you know, getting my period for the first time at 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:48.679 a swim meet, and not even knowing how to use 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:49.599 a tampon. 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:51.480 Not knowing really what that was. Knowing that it. 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:54.760 Existed, of course, but it was a tampon conceptually that 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:56.720 was never something that I was going to need to use. 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:58.400 And then all of a sudden, I'm in a bathing 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:00.360 suit and the team captain is saying, if you don't 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:02.360 figure out how to put a tampon in in the 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:04.839 next thirty minutes, you're off the relay and we need 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:07.640 you for the relay. So there's that learning how to 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:11.000 have the tools to manage the things that are happening 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:12.800 mean to you as your body is changing and going 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.959 through puberty. But then I think body image was something 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:20.360 that was so prevalent for me, particularly in the sport 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:23.240 that I was in, and that was when all of 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:26.800 us started having an Instagram. It was amazing because I 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:30.880 could follow my idols that lived in Australia who were 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:33.560 competing professionally. That's the only place in the world where 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:37.400 there is really a robust semi professional system. I could 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:39.320 follow them on Instagram from across the world. But I 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:44.679 was looking at these developed women who had ridiculous six packs. 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:47.280 I mean, they looked amazing. But I was sixteen, and 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:49.280 I was like, should I look like that? Can I 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:51.800 wear a two peace bathing suit? If I don't look 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:55.559 like that? Because I'm my body is changing and going 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:57.880 through puberty and I don't look like that. 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:02.960 So was managing the different aspects, Like I imagine you probably 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:05.800 had to get a more supportive top to some degree. 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:08.480 You've described the coach saying that you had to use 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:11.640 a tampon immediately, but like talking about how to manage 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:13.760 when you got your period if you were in white 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:16.320 bathing suits, Like, was that something that was openly discussed 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:18.640 among other athletes, among coaches, like anywhere in the field. 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:19.920 Everyone had to figure it out on their own. 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:23.800 Definitely not. It always came from the team captain. It 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:26.240 always came from the older girl on the team. This 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:28.600 is something that my co founder, Greta and I talk 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:31.080 a lot about with our company now, and it's that 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:34.160 a lot of the information that you get as a 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:38.400 young girl, particularly in sports, is passed down from those 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:41.120 that are in leadership positions around you, and it's not 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:45.360 the coach. It's not the systems around you. It's girls 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:49.640 in the locker room helping out other girls whispering. And 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:52.000 that's what it was for me. I mean, I'm so 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:54.560 thankful that my mom was so involved and none of 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:58.440 these conversations were difficult for her. But I remember teaching 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:01.440 younger girls in my swim team a tampon. I remember 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:05.760 showing up at nationals every year for years in a 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:09.440 row and having my period and it wasn't even oh. 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:10.920 I'm gonna leak in my bathing suit. 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:14.160 It was I'm distracted because I'm thinking about the fact 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:16.760 that I'm wearing a tampon and I have my period, 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:18.960 and I have cramps, and it's really heavy at a 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:21.480 heavy period when I was younger, and I have to 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:23.640 go compete against the best girls in the country, and 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:26.000 if I don't show up today, then I might not 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:28.480 get selected for the national team. A lot of pressure 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:30.160 for a thirteen year old to put on themselves, but 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:32.360 add in the period and it's a nightmare. 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:38.840 So how does a competitive lifeguard end up rebuilding the 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:43.240 most used period product in America? Coming up the stand 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:46.520 for class where she meets her co founder, the Spiral 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:49.760 sketch that starts the whole thing, and a four year 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:53.320 struggle to get a tiny piece of cotton past the FDA. 0:15:54.320 --> 0:16:09.480 We'll hear all about it right after the break. Skip 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.680 ahead to college. You went to Stanford and studied product 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:16.640 design engineering. How did you get into engineering? What drew 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:18.360 you to the field, Like, what did you think your 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.240 career goals were going to be at that point? 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:22.280 I did not think I was going to be an engineer. 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:26.400 I came back from my trip to my first World 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:29.240 Championships in France in twenty fourteen in high school, and 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.240 I was amazed with the world out there. I was 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:34.840 meeting people from all over the world, and I was like, 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:36.600 I'm going to be a diplomat. I had a couple 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.760 internships in New York that were setting me in that direction. 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:43.200 I got to Stanford. I was going to study political science, 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:45.600 and after one quarter I called my mom and I 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:47.360 was like, I think I'm going to switch to the 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:50.560 engineering school, and she was like, who are you and 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:53.480 what have you done with my child. It's funny to 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:54.960 look back on it now and think like, Oh, I 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:56.920 was going to go working. I wanted to go work 0:16:56.920 --> 0:17:00.440 in government really badly. Oh, Wow, and why what was 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:03.480 drawing you to government? I felt like it was a 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:07.879 way that I could have an impact for me. The 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:10.159 world just kept getting bigger and bigger, right I was like, 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:14.080 oh my god, I can travel the world and play sports. 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:16.080 And then I made the national team and I was like, 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:18.680 oh my god, there's so many interesting people out there 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:20.720 that I need to meet. And then I started to 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:24.960 think about how could I do something as a profession 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:28.080 that would be impactful, something that I would feel good 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:32.160 about doing while also getting to explore and meet people. 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:36.080 And is that because there was no professional path in 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:38.200 the sport that you were in. How did you see 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:41.680 those two paths playing out, like your professional profession and 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:43.040 professional life saving? 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:47.480 So there really is no professional pathway in Australia. There's 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:50.320 a pretty robust like semi professional. There are some professional 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:53.480 athletes there. That was on my radar and I did 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:57.239 end up spending a summer season in Australia competing, but 0:17:57.280 --> 0:17:59.240 it was always going to be short term. That was 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:01.639 never going to be the end goal for me. That 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:04.679 was fun pathway, obviously not very viable. The other was 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:08.120 I could go and become a professional lifeguard for La 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:11.440 County or out in California, there are you know, it's 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:15.080 like fire lifeguard, everyday heroes. And I have a lot 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:20.399 of friends that are unbelievable, unbelievable women. Firefighters and lifeguards 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:23.640 are real life superwomen. But when I got into Stanford, 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:26.600 that was not the direction that I saw myself going. 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:32.480 I wanted to have this duality that was the lifeguard, 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:35.719 the competitor, the surfer, the person at the beach, and 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:37.040 that was a part of me that I really loved. 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:39.520 But I also wanted to pursue a side of me 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:43.320 that could be professional. I had had a significant business 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:45.679 that I started in high school and then continued through college. 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:46.840 Oh what was that business? 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:50.919 I was doing private swim lessons, surf lessons, lifeguarding, and 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:54.240 then in college I was doing private ocean safety lessons 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:57.280 for families that were coming and spending their summers on 0:18:57.320 --> 0:18:59.960 the East End. And that business was small and all 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:02.000 the side when I was life guarding in high school, 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:04.560 but it grew to be very large. And I loved 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:08.879 the dynamics of having clients, and I loved making money, 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:11.400 and I loved that I could see if I put 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.320