While serving as Miss Freshman at North Carolina A&T State University in March 2019, Lena Vann gathered volunteers to hand-sew reusable cloth menstrual pads for menstruators in the Greensboro Triad area. “I wanted to do something that addressed systemic barriers impacting Black youth and the college pipeline,” Vann tells Her Campus. It was then that Vann discovered the issue of period poverty — the lack of access to menstrual products, hygiene supplies, and reproductive education.