Period poverty is one of those topics that you can't unsee once you realise it's there, but it's surprisingly easy to be oblivious about it until that moment. I know I was oblivious.

I distinctly remember the feeling of empathy and slight guilt about my own privilege when I first read about it. How had I never thought, when talking about women's issues, when talking about homeless problems, when being upset about refugees, war disasters, or climate catastrophes - that in the middle of it all there would be periods, making it worse. Making it more difficult for those who are in the midst of those existing hardships.

If you had told me (or my friends, or my family) 10 years ago that I was going to create The Feminist Shop out of a need to spread the F word and challenge society's norms, I (and they) would have laughed in your face.

Even if you had told me that I would consider myself a feminist, instead of a strong advocate against the whole concept itself, I wouldn't have believed it. And if I am completely honest I can't remember when or how it changed, it has been an ongoing process and not a single lightbulb moment.

We can’t have feminism without men being on board. And we wouldn’t even if we could. There is not a war between genders, but there is a society that separates us and puts us into narrow boxes. The truth is that, as suffocating as any box can be, men’s boxes are comfier than those of women.

We want everyone to escape these boxes, we don’t want to switch them, or enlarge ones by narrowing others. We want them gone. We want equal opportunities and rights. But we can only do that by acknowledging what the situation really is and how different the realities are.