Meet Molly Hayward: Co-Founder of Cora — Helping Women and Girls Around the World Manage Their Periods
Around the globe, 300 million girls and women use items such as rags, plastics, sand and ash to manage their periods. These women don’t have access to or can’t afford proper products to manage the very real issue of their periods. Because of this lack of access, many girls miss school or drop out entirely. In India, 1 in 4 girls drop out of school once she reaches puberty.
This issue is something Molly Hayward couldn’t stop thinking about. She had a focus on women’s rights and girls education in college, but on a volunteer trip to Kenya a few years later, Molly was shocked to discover how the lack of access to these products impacted girls education.
“I saw all of this wonderful work being done by this non-profit organization to ensure that girls in these very remote, rural villages could go to school and then come to find out that most of them will just stay home during the days of their periods each month because they can’t afford to buy sanitary pads.”
Molly then began considering her own experience with managing her period. On one hand she was fortunate enough to be able to afford the products she needed, but on the other hand, managing her period had never been “an overly positive experience.” That’s how Cora started.
“These two things led me down this path of realization about how I could create a solution that would benefit women all over the world. So what was the product or offering I could create that would make it easier for women here in our society to manage their periods and also tie that back to giving products to girls in need in developing countries.”
Smart Girls spoke to Molly over the phone about Cora‘s social impact model, the tampon tax, and finding your passion.
Smart Girls: Was the social impact aspect a part of Cora from the beginning?
Molly: Yes. It was 100% the reason that I started the company.
At every point in the production line, you’re helping and employing women. How did you come up with that model?
I looked very closely and studied the way that social impact models had developed over time. I think the one that most inspired me was obviously Tom’s Shoes — a really reciprocal model where you understood that for every product of theirs that you purchased, you were giving an equivalent product to someone in need. That felt really appropriate for this product especially because it was a monthly occurrence that is fairly predictable.
I think I also learned some lessons from the Tom’s Shoes story though. I think that they, at least early on, were dinged in many ways because they were importing shoes into the countries where they were working and many argued it was kind of undermining the local economy there. I wanted to make sure with Cora we were not falling into that trap. So what I did was I found local partners on the ground who were already addressing the issue of menstrual health and equality and really found the ones who were producing products in their local countries.
For example, our partner in India is called Aakar Innovations and they physically set up small manufacturing units that employ local women who might otherwise be unemployed or employed in the sex trade and give them jobs in these factories making these biodegradable pads that are affordable for the majority of the population. We purchase the products that they make, essentially generating revenue for them.
Similarly with our partner in Kenya, ZanaAfrica, their focus is really on the educational side. We purchase the products that they source, but their focus is on making sure that girls don’t just have the products they need, but also the information that truly empowers them to understand their bodies and get to a point where they can rise above the stigma that still exists in many places — pretty much every place.
Cora has looked for partner organizations that really touch this issue on many levels. We’re not just importing sanitary pads into developing countries, we’re actually finding local sources and supporting them.
So you saw a need and found a way to contribute to solving it. Do you have any advice for other women or girls who want to do something similar?
I think the thing first and foremost is really following what you’re passionate about and what energizes you. I know a lot of people say, “Follow your passion!” but not everyone understands or knows at every point in their life what they’re truly passionate about. I think for me when I learned about girls missing school during their periods because they couldn’t afford to buy pads, something in me was just so ignited.
“I just couldn’t ignore this problem and I couldn’t get it out of my head and I couldn’t stop thinking of it. All I could do was really problem solve with it and it was just infinitely exciting to me.”
It’s so important that we know the things that really light us up and I think that once we follow those things, follow the thread of those things, that’s when we arrive at the big idea, the big problem we want to solve, or even just the cause we want to get involved in. Not everyone has to start a business or start an organization, but just to begin to cultivate the action and the understanding of these issues or problems we feel strongly about is really, really significant.
For those who do want to start a business or do want to start an organization, my biggest piece of advice is just to start. Start talking to people. Start researching. Start writing ideas down. Share your passion for it and start to get people involved. When I had the idea for Cora I really had no background in this industry and was still relatively young. I started very small. I basically had this idea and went to a group of women who were friends and asked them to talk to their friends. And I just said, I have this idea, here it is. Is this something you would want to be a part of? Would you want to be a Cora customer? Would you want to receive organic products that are customized to your body at your door every month and also know that you’re helping a girl in need? Overwhelmingly the answer was yes.
From there, I started working on how to source products and how to ship them and I put up a website and did a crowdfunding campaign. I just started talking to people, and it took a while but the momentum just grew and grew. So I think that it’s just starting small, not feeling like you need to have tons of money or tons of connections or tons of background, or education or experience. I think just starting really small and taking steps to build it piece by piece.
I know that this is something we often think is only an issue in other countries, but you spoke on Chelsea talking about the tampon tax so I wanted to ask about what we can do in the United States to help with this issue.
The first thing that every woman needs to do is know what the laws are in her state. Because then you are able to create more leverage in terms of influencing policy. I live in California and the products are still taxed here, although there’s a little bit of movement in terms of the legislation, but you know, that means that I need to speak directly to my representatives in Congress or in the Governor’s office because those are the people who are really going to enact change. So I think there’s that very specific local level that’s really important to understand.
If you live in a state where the tax has already been eliminated, there are still national campaigns of awareness to help to influence all of the lawmakers in the states where they are still taxed. So I think helping to make women who live in those states aware that those products are still being taxed and if they think that’s not right, then to get in touch with their representatives.
But equally, I think the other side of that is, (in addition to the tax) there’s also the issue of the baseline expense of these products which means that for many women they simply can’t afford to buy products at all. So I think there are certain policy-level initiatives taking place to try to, for example, make products available in public places, bring them under the umbrella of what is covered by food stamps. I think that donating to shelters or organizations that are collecting products to give to women’s shelters is also really important in this country because unfortunately there are many women who can’t afford them at all.
Do you have any advice for your 12-year-old self?
I would say keep paying attention to and following the things you care about today. I really believe that at that age we have a real opportunity to recognize the things that we really care about. I think that at that age most of us haven’t been as heavily influenced by the culture or by other people’s expectations of us, so we’re really still thinking about and doing things that make us happy and light us up. So I would just say, pay attention to the things that you care about and act on them. And follow that and keep doing it. I think that every girl is so capable and is seeing the world probably with new eyes around that age.
“I just want every girl to know that there is absolutely nothing that is out of bounds or not possible or can’t be pursued.” — Molly Hayward
Have the openness to ask questions, to seek help and to really be unafraid to show what she’s really most passionate and energized about.
Find out more about Cora, their social impact, and partners on their website.
Interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. All images courtesy of Cora.
