This High-Tech Underwear Could Help Girls Around the Globe How one woman is rethinking menstruation maintenance with Thinx
This story appears in the June 2016 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »
Don't tell Miki Agrawal that Thinx, her line of underwear designed to let women menstruate freely without tampons or pads, might not be for everybody. Agrawal fiercely believes -- to quote Thinx's tagline -- that these panties are "for women with periods." Meaning: all of them. "Girls are sick of wearing tampons," Agrawal says. "As a woman, how many pairs of our underwear have we all ruined from monthly accidents?"
She might be right: Since a big market push last spring, she says she's sold "tens of thousands" of pairs of Thinx, which look like normal underwear. According to Agrawal (and a few enterprising bloggers), they feel like regular underwear, too. But unlike your daily underpants, these are antimicrobial, moisture-wicking, liquid-absorbing garments that took three and a half years to develop. They come in six styles, cost from $24 to $38 each and promise to hold up to two tampons' worth of fluid.
For women in the U.S., Agrawal pitches this as a low-cost luxury item. For women in developing countries, it could be the key to keeping girls in school. While visiting South Africa in 2010, Agrawal met a young girl who wasn't attending class. "She said, "It's my week of shame,'" Agrawal recalls. "Girls in the developing world have a "period problem,' too, but access to nothing." So for every pair of Thinx sold, the company donates to AfriPads, a Uganda-based company that makes reusable pads and employs local women. Agrawal will also launch a nonprofit arm this year, with plans to open 10 safe, empowering "Girls Clubs" across Africa.
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