Gabby Edlin - on the fight against period poverty

The word ‘powerhouse’ is much overused these days, but it certainly applies to Gabby Edlin in the context of periods. She is a tour de force in the fight against period poverty as founder and CEO of Bloody Good Period, an enterprise that provides menstrual products for asylum seekers in the UK, and campaigns to change the conversation around women’s health and menstruation.

Gabby’s career trajectory to date is an interesting and inspiring one, and if we’re talking about forcing opening a door where only a chink of light shows, then she is the boss. Brought up in Manchester in a Jewish family, Gabby’s passion for social justice and women’s issues began early. In the interests of full disclosure, I should probably say that Gabby and I went to school together - I’m a couple of years older than her, and she is MUCH more creative than me, but we were both inspired by our favourite English teacher and share a deep love of our home city.

In this episode we discuss: 

- Gabby's early desire to be a fashion designer, her love of photography and how she pursued this via a Fine Art foundation course

- Realising that photography was not for her, and switching to an academic degree in English Literature, History of Art and Fine Art despite not possessing the qualifications she needed 

- Working in museums and galleries, applying for her Masters degree and crowd-funding her studies before being awarded a scholarship

- The idea for Bloody Good Period, working with asylum seekers at drop-in centres and what she has learned so far

- The future of women's health, political policy around periods and education in the sphere

Where to find Gabby and Bloody Good Period:

- Website: https://www.bloodygoodperiod.com  

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bloodygoodperiod/ 

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shereenkassam/   

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bloodygood__ 

- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bloodygoodperiod/ 

- Gabby's Masters: https://www.arts.ac.uk/subjects/business-and-management-and-science/postgraduate/ma-applied-imagination-in-the-creative-industries-csm  

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