A woman sitting on a desk in a classroom, being filmed by a camera on a tripod. She is smiling and wearing a black top, red tights, and black shoes with red soles. The classroom has white walls, ceiling lights, and various classroom supplies in the background.

Meet the Founder

Hi. I'm Oakomara.

I'm 21. I’ve just graduated from Liverpool Hope University with a first class degree in Contemporary Fashion Design and Politics which sounds like I couldn't decide what to study, but actually turned out to be exactly the right combination for everything that came next.

period. started as my final year project. The idea was a fashion magazine. I made 120 pages on garment workers earning £2 an hour in Leicester factories, children mining cobalt in the DRC so our metallic party clothes can shimmer, Palestinian artisans watching their symbol mass-produced in polyester by the companies funding their erasure, and the Windrush generation dressing with quiet defiance in a country that invited them and then tried to deport them. It was supposed to end at the degree show.

It’s not.

buy the magazine here

In June, I'm getting on a plane to Kenya for an internship. I pitched an idea of a reusable menstrual pad workshop for older girls, grounded in menstrual health education and practical skills they could pass on. They didn't just say yes. They asked me to properly establish the programme. Not a one-off workshop. A structured, replicable programme that will outlive my time there and continue being run by the school independently after I leave.

That is both the most exciting and the most terrifying thing that has happened to me so far.

I'm doing a ten-week teaching and community development internship in Kilifi County. I’ll be working with girls, teaching them to make their own reusable pads from locally sourced and donated fabric, covering menstrual health, hygiene, and textile skills.

Every magazine you buy funds the materials. Every pad made stays with the girl who made it. Every workshop the school runs after I leave is built on what this programme establishes. That's the point, not a volunteer visit but a foundation.

In Kenya, girls miss an average of four days of school every month because of their period. Nearly half a term, every year, for years. 65% of girls experience poverty, and 1 in 10 under 15 have traded sex for sanitary products. Not because menstruation is shameful. Because sanitary products are unaffordable or unavailable. One reusable pad, made by the girl who will use it, lasts three to five years with proper care. The skill stays in the community. The knowledge spreads. I won't be there forever, but the programme will be.

Four young women posing on a city street, each wearing sunglasses and casual stylish clothing. The background shows parked cars and brick residential buildings with windows and satellite dishes.
Three young women pose in a grocery store aisle filled with canned foods and spices. The woman in the background is wearing a red headscarf, sunglasses, a Lonsdale London t-shirt, and a black leather jacket. The woman in the middle has long hair, sun
A man in beige pants, black shoes, pink shirt, and red vest holding a brown suitcase, walking out of a subway station entrance labeled Lime Street in Merseyrail, Liverpool, UK.
A person dressed in a brown blazer, red pants, and a hat, standing on stairs in front of a large building with ornate archways, glass doors, and decorative ceiling reflections, carrying a suitcase.
A young man with dark curly hair and medium skin tone sitting on a stone ledge in a park. He wears a brown blazer, white shirt, and blue jeans. Behind him, there are leafless trees and a cloudy sky. In the background, there are buildings and a bronze
A woman sitting on a stone bench against a brick wall with small green plants growing in the mortar joints. She wears a red blazer, plaid skirt, black heels, and a wide-brimmed black hat, holding a guitar case.
A woman dressed in traditional yellow attire with silver earrings and jewelry, standing on a city street near a blue sightseeing double-decker bus with advertisements and digital displays, with buildings and reflections in the windows.
A woman with long reddish-brown hair wearing a colorful African print dress stands against a weathered stone wall at sunset.
Two women with a red motor scooter in front of a brick and plaster building. One woman stands, the other sits, both wearing red tops. The standing woman has short blonde hair and distressed jeans, the sitting woman has dark hair and sunglasses.
Two women standing side by side in front of an orange construction barrier, wearing sunglasses and casual clothing, with a blue construction tarp and brick building in the background.
Two women leaning against a red brick wall outside a building. Both are dressed in casual attire with red tank tops, black and gray jackets, and jeans. One woman has short blonde hair and the other has shoulder-length black hair and glasses.

I made period. because I couldn't find a magazine that said what I actually think. One that connected the keffiyeh trend to Palestinian artisans, fast fashion supply chains to forced labour, your metallic club outfit to cobalt mines in the DRC, the St George's Cross to every immigrant hand that built the country it flies over. One that was political without being preachy, sharp without being inaccessible, and always a little bit about fashion.

So I made one. 120 pages. Now I'm selling it to fund something real.

If you've read this far, thank you. Genuinely. Buy a magazine, help five girls, and follow the journey. I'll document all of it honestly. The things that go well, the things that don't, and everything I learn along the way.

- Oakomara

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buy one magazine. help five girls.