Speaker 1: Hi, guys, it's Amy j. This week's guest is a
Speaker 1: friend of mine who is truly amazing. Nadia Okamoto is
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, an activist, published author, and a student at Harvard.
Speaker 1: She's also been named to Forbes thirty and her thirty Lists.
Speaker 1: Oh and did I mention she's only twenty two years old.
Speaker 1: At sixteen, she founded period dot org, which is now
Speaker 1: the largest youth run women's health and g O. Activism
Speaker 1: is in her soul, and that's where we began our conversation.
Speaker 1: So I want to start with activism because that's where
Speaker 1: this all started. How did you create and what was
Speaker 1: the inspiration behind period dot org? Yeah, so I'm Nadia.
Speaker 1: I am currently a junior at Harvard and the founder
Speaker 1: of an organization called Period of the Menstrum Movement. And
Speaker 1: you know, I never grew up dreaming about being a
Speaker 1: period warrior, right, it was not even something that even
Speaker 1: crossed my mind. Um, But I stumbled upon it accident
Speaker 1: when I was sixteen years old. So, in the spring
Speaker 1: of my freshman year of high school, my mom ended
Speaker 1: up losing her job and we entered what I call
Speaker 1: our time of transition, which was essentially several months of
Speaker 1: living without a home of our own, and during that time,
Speaker 1: I commute to school turned from about twelve minutes to
Speaker 1: over two hours long on public transportation, and where I
Speaker 1: would change buses was in an area of Portland, Oregon
Speaker 1: called Old Town where they were like ten homeless shelters
Speaker 1: in a two block radius. So I mean long story short,
Speaker 1: I essentially was running into the same homeless woman over
Speaker 1: and over again and getting into conversations with them about
Speaker 1: their living situation, asking them questions about what they found challenging,
Speaker 1: and it honestly just came up in conversation like these
Speaker 1: stories of using literal trash to take care of their periods, right,
Speaker 1: and slowly just started hearing more stories of they're using
Speaker 1: toilet paper and socks and brown paper, grocery bags and
Speaker 1: cardboard to take care of their periods. And it was
Speaker 1: like a privileged check for me. Right, So I'm sixteen,
Speaker 1: I am confused about my family's living situation. Like it
Speaker 1: was a time when like I had to mark no
Speaker 1: permanent address on school forms. But I was also the
Speaker 1: scholarship kid at a really expensive private school where like
Speaker 1: my face was like low key on the front of
Speaker 1: the financial aid packet like that kind of vibe. So
Speaker 1: it's like really confusing. And so I was became obsessed
Speaker 1: with this idea of period poverty because it was something
Speaker 1: I had never thought about before, right, So it was
Speaker 1: this privileged check of Oh, even in this time when
Speaker 1: my family is going through this hard thing, I've never
Speaker 1: had to worry about where I get my period products
Speaker 1: and put things in perspective, I'm yes, absolutely, And so
Speaker 1: after I just got obsessed with it, googled things about
Speaker 1: period poverty, learned about you know, what it meant on
Speaker 1: a global scale, about being like one of the leading
Speaker 1: causes of absentees and for girls in school, and then
Speaker 1: learned that forty states in the U s had a
Speaker 1: sales tax on period products, considering them luxury items. Okay,
Speaker 1: so for those who don't know, because we have guys
Speaker 1: and girls listening, what is period poverty? So period poverty
Speaker 1: is not being able to afford access to menstrual hygiene
Speaker 1: products so like tampons, adds menstrual cups, due to a
Speaker 1: lack of income. So why do you think there's such
Speaker 1: a stigma around all of this? I mean, I think
Speaker 1: that throughout history, periods have been thought of as something
Speaker 1: that is shameful that should be hidden, right. I think.
Speaker 1: I think there's like the obvious theories behind how periods
Speaker 1: are inherently tied to sex, because it's like when your
Speaker 1: body can become pregnant, right, um. But also I think
Speaker 1: like you can trace it back all the way I
Speaker 1: mean one to the Bible, right, Like in the Bible,
Speaker 1: periods are are framed in Genesis as when um as
Speaker 1: a punishment for the ultimate stind of like Eve eating
Speaker 1: the apple, right um. At the same time, yeah, at
Speaker 1: the same time, the word taboo, which means like untouched,
Speaker 1: like you do not touch the subject, comes from the
Speaker 1: root word Polynesian root tapua, which literally means menstruation stop. So, like,
Speaker 1: throughout history and through the etymology of the language that
Speaker 1: we use, this is thought of as something that is stigmatized,
Speaker 1: connected to stigmatized topics like sex and pregnancy and all
Speaker 1: of that and pure it so I thought of as
Speaker 1: something that like makes that less attractive. Right And at
Speaker 1: the same time, um, I mean throughout history it's been
Speaker 1: sort of as seen as the thing that puts women
Speaker 1: in their place, and so we don't talk about it today,
Speaker 1: like so much of our work is simply trying to
Speaker 1: get people comfortable saying the word period, right. And I
Speaker 1: noticed that when I started talking to these homeless women,
Speaker 1: is we would start talking about periods and they would
Speaker 1: whisper it like it's a bad word, like oh, I'm
Speaker 1: on my period, right, or you think about asking your
Speaker 1: friend for tampa and going to school. It's a very
Speaker 1: secretive thing, exactly, And I think it's even it's rarely
Speaker 1: talked about in school today, but when it is, it's
Speaker 1: in like boys in one classroom and girls in the other.
Speaker 1: So the boys never learned about it, and the girls
Speaker 1: learned that. It's like only talked about behind closed doors,
Speaker 1: and you it's never taught in a space where you
Speaker 1: can ask questions, right. So I mean the example I
Speaker 1: like to use of realizing the stigma around you is
Speaker 1: like when I give speeches, I ask people to raise
Speaker 1: their hand if you've ever stuck a tampa of your sleeve, right,
Speaker 1: And most of the time the majority of the hands
Speaker 1: go up. And it's crazy to think, like, you go
Speaker 1: to the bathroom and we're conditioned to know that you
Speaker 1: hide your period product, but no one tells you that
Speaker 1: when you need to change your period product. At all
Speaker 1: costs height it. Yeah, you're like conditioned by society that
Speaker 1: this literal like piece of cotton is a shame an
Speaker 1: object of shame, right, and that you will be laughed
Speaker 1: at and giggled at. And so society conditions us to
Speaker 1: understand that there's this shame around periods. And I think
Speaker 1: that's what we're trying to change. I mean, just talking
Speaker 1: about it, it's like it automatically makes my my heart
Speaker 1: be like, oh my god, like what are people? Can
Speaker 1: I think about it? Which it shouldn't be because it
Speaker 1: literally happens to have the population exactly. And I think
Speaker 1: I think even further, it's understanding that like this, these
Speaker 1: small elements of stigma have real systemic effects. Right, So
Speaker 1: we think of it as, oh, it's just like it's
Speaker 1: just our own nervousness, right, But because of that stigma,
Speaker 1: we have the majority of US states that consider these
Speaker 1: periodpodics luxury items, not essential goods. But rogaine, viagra, penal pumps,
Speaker 1: chopstick is considered essential goods. Really, So it's like all
Speaker 1: of these things where it's like the stigmas pervasive and
Speaker 1: has real effects all the way to we're still fighting
Speaker 1: for period products to be freely accessible in school shelters,
Speaker 1: in prisons, and like last year, legislation was turned down
Speaker 1: in Maine and a GOP representative stood up and said
Speaker 1: period products should not be free in prisons because they're
Speaker 1: not meant to be country clubs. Right, So there's this
Speaker 1: to so this is like in a state house in
Speaker 1: Maine state House, right, And so it's we there are
Speaker 1: real effects of you know, we joke around about periods
Speaker 1: and we joke about, you know, what the effects of
Speaker 1: this are, but like, yeah, there's laws and that exists
Speaker 1: around this that are really angering and we you know,
Speaker 1: my organization did a national study last year. We found
Speaker 1: that of teens in America have either misclass or know
Speaker 1: someone who has misclass due to lack of access to
Speaker 1: period products. So you started this nonprofit when you were sixteen,
Speaker 1: But when did you think this could grow and become
Speaker 1: such a huge movement. I don't think I ever really
Speaker 1: realized it was a movement. Even like today, I still
Speaker 1: wake up and I'm like shocked by how many people
Speaker 1: are interested and they call it to move and now
Speaker 1: they had a carried movement that you started. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: and it's it's super exciting to me. But I mean,
Speaker 1: when I started this organization, I did not think it
Speaker 1: was going to be national. I did not think it
Speaker 1: was going to go beyond Portland. I was truly doing
Speaker 1: it because I was like, I know these homeless women,
Speaker 1: and I genuinely care about them, and and I wanted
Speaker 1: to reconcile this privilege that I was realizing I had
Speaker 1: right and and I had no idea what I was doing.
Speaker 1: I was googling what is a nonprofit? And what is
Speaker 1: the I R S? And what is a form nine nine?
Speaker 1: I was googling everything, yes, and on my I started
Speaker 1: with a goal of getting period products to twenty homeless
Speaker 1: wman a week because I personally knew twenty homeless woman.
Speaker 1: And it was simply through organizing and posting on social media.
Speaker 1: And then, I mean I was a true workaholic at
Speaker 1: the age of like sixteen. I was like staying up
Speaker 1: late finishing my homework, doing sixteen clubs, and then using
Speaker 1: all the time I could to work on this. And
Speaker 1: so within a few months we were starting to register
Speaker 1: chapters around the country. And fast forward to now, um,
Speaker 1: we're now the largest youth and engine Woman's Health in
Speaker 1: the world. We've addressed about almost a million period. It's
Speaker 1: for product distributions, million units of product, and we've registered
Speaker 1: about six hundred campus chapters in all fifty states. WHOA, Okay,
Speaker 1: so how crazy is not just to say that in
Speaker 1: a sentence that you've accomplished all that munch in you. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's interesting because I'm not very good at like celebrating
Speaker 1: how much we've done because I think that as an
Speaker 1: activist at heart, like, yes, it's important to take moments
Speaker 1: to celebrate those moments, but I think I'm so always
Speaker 1: focused on, like how much more we have to do?
Speaker 1: Right um, And I'm really proud of our team, like
Speaker 1: we in the last few months, we've taken down the
Speaker 1: Tampa tax in Ohio, Utah, and Virginia and just the
Speaker 1: Senate just passed the bill two days ago in Virginia. Congratulation.
Speaker 1: But I think, like in my mind, I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: there's still thirty states and we're coming upon which is
Speaker 1: like one of the most pivotal years in terms of
Speaker 1: reproductive rights right now, and we're still fighting to protect
Speaker 1: the same legislation we've been fighting for for the last
Speaker 1: like six decades. And like I'm with a few presidential
Speaker 1: campaigns today, and like I was talking to them and
Speaker 1: they had no idea that the Tampa tax existed. I
Speaker 1: met with Bluebrigs team today, but like it's I didn't see.
Speaker 1: That's what's crazy to me that they don't understand how
Speaker 1: relevant this is. Well, even more so, it's like I
Speaker 1: regularly meet with governors or legislators who don't even know
Speaker 1: that their own tax state has this tax right because
Speaker 1: it's an archaic law that has never been questioned. So
Speaker 1: you're the one that started questioning this. We're trying to
Speaker 1: us that all of our chapters. Yeah, so how many
Speaker 1: states have you made it? So there's no tampata. So
Speaker 1: it's not just it's so many different activists. It truly
Speaker 1: is this movement of so many different organizations now. But
Speaker 1: I mean when I started in when I was sixteen,
Speaker 1: it was forty states, and now we're a thirty man. Okay,
Speaker 1: So once you get down to thirty and there's none,
Speaker 1: how are you going to celebrate? Yeah? I guess I should. Sorry, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think that Okay. Honestly, Like the first
Speaker 1: thing that came to mind was like, oh, once we
Speaker 1: get it all past, that's when we can really get
Speaker 1: period products all the schools, right, So it's always I know,
Speaker 1: and I really this is my goal for twenties. I
Speaker 1: need to learn how to like take a step back
Speaker 1: and like but like I mean, I sort of see
Speaker 1: the Tampa tax and fighting it as a trojan horse
Speaker 1: to fighting for the other things, right, because the Tampa
Speaker 1: tax is not affecting homeless and low income women, because
Speaker 1: it's affecting people who are already buying the product. But yes,
Speaker 1: but it's exactly, it's a catalyst because we have to
Speaker 1: fight this stigma that menstrual hygiene is a luxury, so
Speaker 1: that we can fight for period products to be free
Speaker 1: in school shelters, in prisons. Like I actively think that
Speaker 1: period products should be freely accessible in every restroom because
Speaker 1: if you walked into a bathroom there was no toilet paper,
Speaker 1: you'd be kind of mad, right, or you'd be really
Speaker 1: mad and frustrated. It's this, It's just as natural, it
Speaker 1: can come just as unexpectedly. And actually our chapters have
Speaker 1: been amazing. We've passed UM or introduced about twelve pieces
Speaker 1: of legislation in the last few months. UM Missouri yesterday,
Speaker 1: California last last week. UM around period products to be
Speaker 1: free in schools, right, um, because like we it's crazy
Speaker 1: even thinking about not just the statistics of missing class
Speaker 1: and missing school, but like if you have to go
Speaker 1: get a period product in the middle of a class
Speaker 1: and you have to go find it, and oftentimes it's like,
Speaker 1: first of all, sometimes it's in the bathroom and you
Speaker 1: need a quarter who carries a quarter anymore? And at
Speaker 1: the same time, or it's in the principal's office and
Speaker 1: you have to like go to your principal, who's honestly
Speaker 1: most likely a man, and you have to say, Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm menstruating. I'm thirteen, and I'm going to tell my
Speaker 1: principle I'm menstruating and I need a period product. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: So when you created period dot org, I just find
Speaker 1: it so fascinating. How did you collect product in the
Speaker 1: first place? So I really mean it when I say
Speaker 1: we started and had no strategy, Like it was truly
Speaker 1: passion and like not going to stop working. So it
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, this is my thought process. We need
Speaker 1: a period product, so I need to go buy the
Speaker 1: period products. I didn't even know the concept of like
Speaker 1: corporate social giving could give us products like we're going
Speaker 1: to go raise money to buy this product. I did
Speaker 1: not come from money, So I tried singing on my
Speaker 1: guitar on the side of the street corner for five hours,
Speaker 1: raised twenty dollars. Realized that was not a good use
Speaker 1: of my time. I started trying to pitch to anyone
Speaker 1: who would listen on the street. Realized I was just
Speaker 1: a creepy young person like training some people. So my
Speaker 1: natural thought was, Okay, I'm just gonna go pitch to
Speaker 1: people who were They're forced to be there. So it's
Speaker 1: like staff meetings. So I would go to like Fidelity Insurance,
Speaker 1: Chase Bank, Jiffy Loup auto mechanic store, and be like,
Speaker 1: can I pitch at your staff meetings? And I would
Speaker 1: get up in front of the audience and or not
Speaker 1: audience is a strong word, the staff, which was sometimes
Speaker 1: like a few men, and I would just pitch them.
Speaker 1: And I would just try to pitch in different ways.
Speaker 1: And I remember like when someone would give me literally
Speaker 1: two dollars or five dollars and it was like the
Speaker 1: most incredible as a sixth year old who like was
Speaker 1: not us some money and being like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: they believe in what I'm doing. Right. That's why it's
Speaker 1: crazy to me to realize how much we've grown when
Speaker 1: we when I looked back at our first year where
Speaker 1: we raised a million, I was like, like a million dollars.
Speaker 1: It was a crazy realization of how far we'd come
Speaker 1: because when I started, I was truly just like searching
Speaker 1: for anyone to listen to me in the first place,
Speaker 1: and to to you know, to to give any amount, right,
Speaker 1: and I would just practice my pitch in that sense.
Speaker 1: Then I got frustrated, so I went online found every
Speaker 1: pitch competition in the area. When all of them started
Speaker 1: with a few yeah, I mean I was just googling,
Speaker 1: like I just how I can raise money as a
Speaker 1: young you start up our entrepreneur. There's so many funding opportunities,
Speaker 1: like so many funding opportunities, like adults really want to
Speaker 1: give to young activists right now. That's why I always
Speaker 1: told young people like now is the best time to start,
Speaker 1: because everyone is calling for this next generation to take action,
Speaker 1: and they have money and they have resources, and they
Speaker 1: just need to find people to invest in. But so
Speaker 1: I yeah, I mean, we started with a few thousand
Speaker 1: dollars and I got a group of like guy friends
Speaker 1: together and we would go buy out the grocery stores,
Speaker 1: get friends together, put them into little packages, and then
Speaker 1: distribute them to people directly on the street. And then
Speaker 1: realized that was not maximizing our impact, so we went
Speaker 1: and distributed directly to shelters, and we just started doing
Speaker 1: that until we had a few hundred shelters. Then we
Speaker 1: realized we could raise money online. It was like there
Speaker 1: was no there was no business plant Like now, of
Speaker 1: course we have a strategic plan, but I didn't even
Speaker 1: know what that was when we started. When I started,
Speaker 1: it was like, I have no idea what a nonprofit is.
Speaker 1: I just know that I'm really passionate about this and
Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm doing, but we're going to
Speaker 1: do it anyways, and so it's I mean, that's honestly
Speaker 1: the mentality I've had in everything I've done. From that too.
Speaker 1: I ran for office when I was nineteen, had no
Speaker 1: idea what that meant, but googled everything and just kept
Speaker 1: knocking on doors. When I wanted to write a book,
Speaker 1: I googled how to write a book and cold emailed
Speaker 1: literary agents and then signed with my dream publisher and
Speaker 1: wrote it in Google Docs because I didn't know, it
Speaker 1: was just like the simple. It was the easy thing
Speaker 1: to do. And I think that's the thing that holds
Speaker 1: young people back is like, what is my first step
Speaker 1: in starting? And it's like there's no right first step,
Speaker 1: you just have to do it. So how long did
Speaker 1: it take you to write your book? Um? They gave
Speaker 1: me two months? And how many pages? Has it? Like?
Speaker 1: Toft words? And I was so I had so much
Speaker 1: imposter syndrome about my book and I still do, Like
Speaker 1: it was this whole like why do I deserve to
Speaker 1: write a book? Who's going to read the book? So
Speaker 1: I procrastinated and wrote it in like the last three weeks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh my goodness. And keep in mind everyone that she's
Speaker 1: at Harvard. Yes, you took a gap here. Yes when
Speaker 1: my book came out. Wow, you are the busiest person
Speaker 1: like you No, well, like you're so inspiring, just like, so,
Speaker 1: what's your goal for a period? Data org? In general?
Speaker 1: I mean, I think the goal of every nonprofit is
Speaker 1: to put yourself out of business, like our goal like that,
Speaker 1: it's truly what we're trying to do. We wake up
Speaker 1: every day saying I wish we didn't have to exist,
Speaker 1: Right if we achieve what we do in terms of
Speaker 1: fighting period poverty. We can close our doors and say
Speaker 1: we did our job right. I don't know if that's
Speaker 1: ever going to be achieved in our lifetime, because periods
Speaker 1: are still like the number one reason why girls my
Speaker 1: school and developing countries. It's the single vent that leads
Speaker 1: to girls dropping at a school, getting married early, undergoing
Speaker 1: female gender mutilation, or social isolation. Like this issue is
Speaker 1: so big, But I think that what I love about
Speaker 1: this movement is that we have tangible ways of making
Speaker 1: a difference. Like I can tell you exactly how many
Speaker 1: states still have the tampon tacks, which states still don't
Speaker 1: provide period products? Um, how many more? Like I can
Speaker 1: find out, like how much more, how many more prisons
Speaker 1: need to like freely freely provide these products. Like there's
Speaker 1: tangible ways to make a difference. And I think that's
Speaker 1: why I wanted to write my book too, was to say, like,
Speaker 1: this is one of the few poverty related issues that
Speaker 1: is solvable. You are a very clearly passionate person. Do
Speaker 1: you ever get tired and want to give up? Because
Speaker 1: you seem so motivated, Like just like a week in
Speaker 1: your life when I see your Instagram stories. It gives
Speaker 1: me anxiety, just like the amount that you do, the
Speaker 1: amount of flights. How many flights would you say you
Speaker 1: go on a week? I think it totally depends on
Speaker 1: a week. Busy week, it's like a flight or two
Speaker 1: a day. Yeah, chill week, it's like a couple of
Speaker 1: trains a week. But it's part of my restlessness, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's that's the thing I always tell people. It's not
Speaker 1: that I'm super busy. It's that I grew up in
Speaker 1: very tumultuous like like my childhood was not peaceful, right.
Speaker 1: I grew up downtown New York City posts on eleven
Speaker 1: and then with a lot of domestic violence and abuse
Speaker 1: in my own household. So I and then I grew
Speaker 1: up moving around all the time. I think by the
Speaker 1: time I sixteen, we'd moved like sixteen times or more.
Speaker 1: We were bouncing around all the time. So my when
Speaker 1: like what I am used to is is like instability. Honestly,
Speaker 1: Like I think when I'm in one place for five days,
Speaker 1: I get restless. So it's not that like I'm I
Speaker 1: look super busy, but like I don't feel busy because
Speaker 1: I think my life has always had a little bit
Speaker 1: of that chaos. So like when I go to Portland.
Speaker 1: If I'm Portland, Oregon, which is very chill compared to
Speaker 1: New York, if I'm there for like four days, I
Speaker 1: will actively get anxiety because I'm like everything is moving
Speaker 1: in slow motion. So you thrive off of the go
Speaker 1: go go totally. Yeah. And I like New York. Yes,
Speaker 1: And I can sleep better on planes, like when I
Speaker 1: feel like it's so odd, that's so interesting, But it's
Speaker 1: because I grew up around like a lack of so
Speaker 1: like when and I know that eventually in my life
Speaker 1: I'm going to have to learn stability. But right now,
Speaker 1: and it's the same thing. I've never focused on just
Speaker 1: one thing right And it's been frustrating for some of
Speaker 1: my team members who are like, why don't you just
Speaker 1: focus on period, And I'm like, yes, but sort of
Speaker 1: like I'm so nerdy to use this comparison. But you know,
Speaker 1: when you're like practicing for standardized testing, and the first
Speaker 1: tip is if you get stuck on a problem, don't
Speaker 1: spend time on it. Just move on right and you'll
Speaker 1: start You'll think about it in the back of your
Speaker 1: mind and you come back. That's how I think of
Speaker 1: everything I do right to maximize efficiency and make sure
Speaker 1: I'm getting like perhaps like the quote unquote right answers,
Speaker 1: I focus on period and when I get to a
Speaker 1: stopping point or like frustrated with that, I move on
Speaker 1: to my company or I move on to running profice
Speaker 1: and I know I will eventually come back and I'll
Speaker 1: complete it all. And I used to have really struggles
Speaker 1: with anxiety, and then one of my friends told me
Speaker 1: stress is just a waste of time, and time is
Speaker 1: going to keep going. And it's so true, right, like
Speaker 1: if you panic and you just I used to panic
Speaker 1: attacks every day and from like PTSD and stuff, and
Speaker 1: I would sit there and panic and realize six hours
Speaker 1: went by and I did nothing right. And I think
Speaker 1: I just had to internalize like time will keep going
Speaker 1: whether you're with it or not. And I think time
Speaker 1: is our most one of our most time and our
Speaker 1: energies like our most precious resource, and we just have
Speaker 1: to accept that and stay focused and breathe so you
Speaker 1: can be more effective. You are so insightful. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: it's one or the other. But like you could just
Speaker 1: write a book on motivation, like in itself. Okay, I
Speaker 1: want to talk about jew for how would you describe
Speaker 1: you as a pitch jube to the people listening? How
Speaker 1: would you describe it? I think it makes sense when
Speaker 1: I talk about the story behind it. Right, So I
Speaker 1: grow period, we start mobilizing young people in like historic
Speaker 1: waves ever seen before in the period space, and I
Speaker 1: run for office. We didn't win, but we made history
Speaker 1: of student turn out and I accidentally became the youngest
Speaker 1: Asian American to run ever and accidentally so I did
Speaker 1: not even know. But at a certain point I started
Speaker 1: finding myselves, like honestly, not even thinking about it, but
Speaker 1: finding myself is called into rooms of high up people
Speaker 1: and companies or hi up people in campaigns who are saying,
Speaker 1: who are using these a case study? Saying how have
Speaker 1: you grown this? Now? Teach us how how do we
Speaker 1: reach young people? What we forget as young people is
Speaker 1: that we are really powerful together. We are the largest
Speaker 1: segment of a population in the history of the world.
Speaker 1: Were of the global population. Wait, yes, that is a
Speaker 1: crazy statistic, but we're of the total media audience and
Speaker 1: even more on social right, So when you think about
Speaker 1: where these companies are investing in their marketing dollars or
Speaker 1: who they need, who campaigns need to reach to vote
Speaker 1: UM And even in the month we spend, we control
Speaker 1: a hundred and forty three billion dollars of spending power,
Speaker 1: but we influenced six hundred billion dollars where parents money right,
Speaker 1: So there's so we have so much influence in this space.
Speaker 1: So I I it was truly an accident. Like I
Speaker 1: started getting call into taking these meetings and realizing I
Speaker 1: could like charge money for people who wanted to understand
Speaker 1: young people. And what I realized as I would walk
Speaker 1: into these rooms and it was often like people who
Speaker 1: are decades older than me, and then there was like
Speaker 1: someone in the corner who was like the youth expert,
Speaker 1: like the youth expert, and I knew I was like
Speaker 1: the first young person they've talked to in years, and
Speaker 1: I would realize, like I'm not. I would sit there
Speaker 1: being they would be like, oh my god, you're so amazing.
Speaker 1: We've never heard any young person speak like that. And
Speaker 1: I'm like confused because I am, like, I don't feel
Speaker 1: unique in this sense, like so many amazing there's so
Speaker 1: many amazing young people. If you think I am like
Speaker 1: a diamond in the rough and you're just not talking
Speaker 1: to enough young people, right. So I started doing this
Speaker 1: just as like on the side, as a side hustle
Speaker 1: um to like support my fan, like support myself from
Speaker 1: through school. And then I started meeting other young people
Speaker 1: with like my co founders Yad Ahmed, who was like
Speaker 1: another actors in the space who sort of started building
Speaker 1: a business in that own since we joined together created
Speaker 1: this company. So now we work with small companies all
Speaker 1: the way up to about thirty fort companies working on
Speaker 1: marketing strategies, digital activations, experiential marketing. We basically go into
Speaker 1: companies and we say, you're already trying to reach young people,
Speaker 1: You're spending a lot of money on it. You're trying
Speaker 1: to research us, but all of the research you're doing
Speaker 1: is not in the best way, right. It's either do
Speaker 1: done through research that takes six months to come out.
Speaker 1: By the time it comes out, the trends are outdated, right.
Speaker 1: Or you do focus groups, but you're they're just telling
Speaker 1: you about the problem, not the solution, and you're not
Speaker 1: getting at the heart of the problem right. For example,
Speaker 1: I hear a lot from clients who do these focus
Speaker 1: groups about social media and have never heard of a finsta, right,
Speaker 1: because they've never asked about it. They don't know what
Speaker 1: questions to ask, right, And so we just come in
Speaker 1: and we're like, if you want to reach young people,
Speaker 1: you should talk to us. And I sort of think
Speaker 1: about our vision or our ethos not as just about
Speaker 1: like young people, but it's the idea that if you're
Speaker 1: trying to affect any group of people, that group of
Speaker 1: people needs to be represented at the table, right, otherwise
Speaker 1: you're not doing it equitably. I completely agree, and I
Speaker 1: think it's really smart that you did that, because is
Speaker 1: there anything like that? No, I mean that was that's
Speaker 1: why we've grown so fast, because we started this and
Speaker 1: it's a huge need and there's no competition in this space, right,
Speaker 1: Like we are like the only made and there are
Speaker 1: other gen Z marketing places, but like, but it's the
Speaker 1: run but you're one and run by people your age
Speaker 1: and yeah, and there's some that are popping up like it,
Speaker 1: but we are the only one that have like infrastructure
Speaker 1: and and and scalability. Right. So we I was the
Speaker 1: oldest person at the company until we recently hired a
Speaker 1: twenty three year old CFO last year. That's twenty four
Speaker 1: year old chief of staff, and we have a hundred
Speaker 1: consultants between the ages of fourteen and twenty two, and
Speaker 1: then we deploy them out to work with high level executives.
Speaker 1: And then we have a vine network of over three
Speaker 1: thousand young people that we regularly fill out to surveys. Right, So,
Speaker 1: like some of our favorite clients like this Go, we'll
Speaker 1: do these surveys with um on like how gen Z
Speaker 1: thinks about creates itty or social media, and we're just
Speaker 1: able to get like, you know, much deeper insights. And
Speaker 1: it's been it's been incredible to watch because I think
Speaker 1: I took everything I learned from period of like the
Speaker 1: power of working with brands who have resources and platform
Speaker 1: and network, and we take that into this space and
Speaker 1: we consider ourselves like a company that's truly about empowering
Speaker 1: young people and trying to honestly get these companies to
Speaker 1: take a stand on something like climate change or the
Speaker 1: digital divide. My work teaches me to have little privilege checks,
Speaker 1: every little every day, right, because it put things into
Speaker 1: perspective or like I mean, even coming over here realizing
Speaker 1: like I don't even think twice about subway fair anymore. Right,
Speaker 1: but five years ago the Subway fair was really stressful
Speaker 1: for me, right, or like I know, it's stressful for
Speaker 1: a lot of people, and today I never think about it, right,
Speaker 1: And I think it's you remember, as you you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not used to making money like that was not
Speaker 1: something I really grew up with. And I think I
Speaker 1: pushed myself to be so thankful for those little things
Speaker 1: every day and to recognize how far we've come to
Speaker 1: It's it's taken a lot of heal ing, and I
Speaker 1: think it's part of being a sexual thought survivor you
Speaker 1: like have like I have really struggled with like treating
Speaker 1: myself or being like I deserve a home, or like
Speaker 1: I deserve to be taken care of, or like I
Speaker 1: deserve my own space, and so like I finally got
Speaker 1: my own place, And how have you learned to actually
Speaker 1: splurge for yourself and treat yourself? I mean, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: still learning, but I think I mean, I think honestly
Speaker 1: it was it took a lot of pushing from my
Speaker 1: family and the people close to me who knew about
Speaker 1: all of this. But also I think what put it
Speaker 1: into perspective is, like I care so deeply about all
Speaker 1: the young activists that I work with, right, Like I think,
Speaker 1: like I spent hours a day texting back and forth
Speaker 1: with chapter members or young activists I've never met, but
Speaker 1: like genuinely love, like would dive because I like support
Speaker 1: them so much. Oh my god. So how do you
Speaker 1: balance college and all of this? And Harvard is not
Speaker 1: an easy school? Yeah, I mean it's really hard. It's um,
Speaker 1: where do you majoring in sociology? Now? Yeah that's interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really fun. But I mean the thing is is,
Speaker 1: like it's not like the comes with no sacrifices, right,
Speaker 1: Like when you live this life, I don't go to
Speaker 1: parties every weekend. You know, I was supposed to go
Speaker 1: to all these New York Fashion Week shows. I've ditched
Speaker 1: all of them to work by myself in my pajamas, right,
Speaker 1: And I'm actually really happy doing that. I'm so not
Speaker 1: extroverted as people think I am. But like there's sacrifices
Speaker 1: that come with it. And so I mean when I'm
Speaker 1: at school, I'm there for class, like, I'm there, I
Speaker 1: see my friends, we work together, but like I'm there
Speaker 1: Monday to like Monday night, and then like Wednesday to
Speaker 1: Wednesday night. Like that's often how it is, and so
Speaker 1: I like go to class and I live by to
Speaker 1: do list to do list, and whenever I have time,
Speaker 1: I block out, like six hours on Saturday, I just
Speaker 1: get all my homework done. Smart When you have a
Speaker 1: deadline or you're working for your nonprofit, are your professors accommodating? No,
Speaker 1: usually not not at all, because Harvard is the school
Speaker 1: of a lot of ego. Right For the most part,
Speaker 1: it's the students who were the best in their class
Speaker 1: and then they get to Harvard and they expect this
Speaker 1: special treatment because I mean, for the most of us,
Speaker 1: we were like our teachers, like we were the ones
Speaker 1: who got away. But no, that's not the case at all.
Speaker 1: Like everyone is doing their own thing. So of course
Speaker 1: you find some professors, like there are some professors I've
Speaker 1: worked with who like, so support what I'm doing. Others
Speaker 1: are like, yes, we support what you're doing. But like,
Speaker 1: you are a student, just like anyone else. Would you
Speaker 1: ever just take forty eight hours and just like go
Speaker 1: to a spot or something and not be on your
Speaker 1: phone and not work or do you think your mind
Speaker 1: just can't do that? No? I actually I've been able
Speaker 1: to do that, and I think it's been even So
Speaker 1: the thing that I do no matter what is I
Speaker 1: work out every day, right, Like, no matter what where
Speaker 1: I am anything, if I'm at a hotel or whatever,
Speaker 1: I will always go to the gym. And like my
Speaker 1: sipulation with my team is like whatever hotel, I say,
Speaker 1: and there needs to be a gym at twenty four
Speaker 1: our gym, like and I need to work out every day.
Speaker 1: And it's like the time when I put my work
Speaker 1: away and I just listen to music or NPR and
Speaker 1: like I just like clear my head. I mean yes,
Speaker 1: my therapists argues that that's no longer just self care
Speaker 1: because I started modeling, so it's like part of my
Speaker 1: job now. It's like I signed with Adidas and so
Speaker 1: like I have to be. But it's also at the
Speaker 1: same time, I think like working out is like very
Speaker 1: portant for me. I also started dating someone, and so
Speaker 1: for me, like our sipulation is when it's long distance,
Speaker 1: but like when we are together, like I put everything
Speaker 1: away and I'm like there and present have long distance.
Speaker 1: I think it's like perfect for me because when I
Speaker 1: wasn't long distance before, I was like, so like please
Speaker 1: go away, like go okay, I need my time to
Speaker 1: do my best to both worlds. All of my romantic
Speaker 1: relationships before this one have ended because they've asked me
Speaker 1: to choose between period and them, like actively choose between
Speaker 1: this and them. And I'm like, I'm always like sad
Speaker 1: at first, and I'm like, okay, bye, Like like so
Speaker 1: long distance I love actually because I'm like I get
Speaker 1: my own time to like focus on my stuff and
Speaker 1: to work, and I I'm obsessed with what he's doing.
Speaker 1: He's like doing um, sustainable infrastructure like solar panel stuff, yes,
Speaker 1: in his own way. And then I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: he get me focus. And then when we're together, which
Speaker 1: is like I don't know, like once a month or
Speaker 1: something like, I'll be fully present. Yeah that's yeah, I
Speaker 1: see what you're saying. Yeah. Actually, Also, I recently found
Speaker 1: out that long distance is more common with Gen Z
Speaker 1: than any other generation. It doesn't surprise me, yeah, because
Speaker 1: we have the tools so like you can face time
Speaker 1: and it doesn't think like can you imagine if you
Speaker 1: were in a long dis persuation and all you have
Speaker 1: to do could to write letters? Oh my god, It
Speaker 1: is crazy to me, Like it would never work in
Speaker 1: that sense. But yeah, as an activist in general, what
Speaker 1: is your goal. I know it's you're doing period, you're
Speaker 1: doing that, you have another business idea, What is your
Speaker 1: generalized goal in this entire field? So I mean I
Speaker 1: have overall goals of what we I think we should
Speaker 1: do right, like and the Tampa tax, really accessible period
Speaker 1: products and schools. At the same time, I actually don't
Speaker 1: have goals for like what I want to like I'm
Speaker 1: going to do everything to get there. But I sort
Speaker 1: of think is my goal is just to like maximize
Speaker 1: my impact, like maximize my being, like bringing I don't know,
Speaker 1: like inspiration to like the people around me, or like
Speaker 1: love to my family, or like impa to my team.
Speaker 1: Because I used to hold myself to standards of like
Speaker 1: my organization needs to make this impact. Otherwise I did
Speaker 1: not accomplish the goal. But I realized that when you
Speaker 1: work in policy and you work in social change, first
Speaker 1: of all, it's really hard to measure but who you
Speaker 1: are depending on like a slow, often broken system, Right,
Speaker 1: So I realized, like I just try to push myself
Speaker 1: to like maximize what I can do, And I think
Speaker 1: that's my goal is just to like at any stage
Speaker 1: of what I'm doing, maximize what I'm doing. You are
Speaker 1: very busy. Thank you for taking the time. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm inspired by what you're doing. You're making history with podcasts,
Speaker 1: and you're much younger than me, and you're killing it,
Speaker 1: and we're all inspired by you. Do You've actively talks
Speaker 1: about how inspired we are by you. Stop it seriously.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Oh my god. I will you too.
Speaker 1: You need to take a break from that. But I'm
Speaker 1: telling you I'm taking breaks. It's just like I'm just
Speaker 1: I like being busy. I can tell you thrive off it, Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for listening. I hope you
Speaker 1: guys enjoyed this episod open Naudia, make sure you follow
Speaker 1: her on all of her socials It's Nadia Okamoto, and
Speaker 1: follow me on my Instagram. It's at It's A M
Speaker 1: E J. That's I T S S A M M
Speaker 1: y J A y E. I also recommend you follow
Speaker 1: our podcast account because we have some fun giveaways coming.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for listening, and I'll see
Speaker 1: you guys. Say bye.