celia hodson is
relentlessly advocating
Celia Hodson is breaking boundaries and biases by advocating for period equality, dignity and education through her award-winning enterprise, Hey Girls. Since launching in 2018, Celia and her team have donated over 40 million period products across Scotland and the UK, and were instrumental in campaigning for two monumental law changes, the tampon tax abolishment and the free period products provision bill.
Celia traces her inspiration back to life as a young mum of three, where she experienced the challenges of raising a family through financial insecurity. “I enjoyed being a single parent and the strength that it brought me, but I didn’t manage well and it was really, really tough.” Sorting schedules, managing budgets, cooking meals and caring for her family took a lot of strength, and she relied heavily on her support networks of friends and family to get her through. “I probably wouldn’t have coped if it wasn’t for the kindness of others.” These formative years as a single mother instilled in her a deep empathy and understanding for those struggling, and a great appreciation for those who used their care and resources to help them through it.
Thanks to the nurturing and kind people around her, Celia managed to get back into work, and found herself in the world of community enterprise. She first became an advisor for community businesses, then worked in cooperative development, followed by social enterprise expansion and lobbying. She moved to Australia working in the same fields, even spending some time on projects in India and Brazil. Celia worked hard to create as much impact and change for community-led enterprises as she could, so hard in fact that she burned herself out and had to move back to the UK, settling in Edinburgh.
Once Celia regained her strength, she re-entered the industry, sitting on various social enterprise boards. The climate at the time was sparking some conversations that piqued her interest. “The whole conversation on tampon tax was kicking off, and I remember thinking, how could this be? In the modern world full of fantastically powerful women, how can we put VAT on tampons when there’s no VAT on a man’s disposable razor, or caviar or kangaroo steaks!”
Celia refused to accept that people living in poverty were unable to afford such a basic necessity. “Surely people in the UK don’t need to be in poverty, surely mums shouldn’t be at the checkout counter making the decision between a loaf of bread or some tampons.” She decided she needed to take action. Sat at her kitchen table in Dunbar with her youngest daughter, Celia pondered what she could do. Their discussions started with bake sales and market stalls, but if Celia’s background in social entrepreneurship had taught her anything, it was that she needed a viable and sustainable configuration to make a real impact. “I started to think about how you could use a commercial model to eradicate period poverty in communities in the UK.” She landed on a buy one donate one model, where she could sell period products to those who could afford it in order to give them to those who couldn’t.
With that, Hey Girls was born in 2018. Celia started small, putting every penny that she had into developing period product prototypes and a website. Very quickly, she saw her idea grow from the kitchen table to a thriving online presence. It didn’t take long before she was winning pitches with supermarket giants like Waitrose and Asda. With the pitches won, there was just the small detail of developing the products. “So we bought 500,000 pads, and watched them arrive into Grangemouth Port, tracking our container on a little app.” From that very first shipment until now, Celia has made sure that her products maintain the utmost quality, meet her customers’ needs and respect the environment, “just because it’s free doesn’t mean it should be poor quality, let’s give them organic, let’s give them the good stuff.” She even went as far as responding to a customer request to include a domestic violence helpline on the inside of the packaging.
Seeing a gap in provisions for the corporate market, Celia decided to pursue this white space (today supplying 750 corporate customers from National Rail to AXA to the Met Office). As she was beginning to build out this customer base, the public sector was all too present in Celia’s peripheral vision, with conversations on period provisions starting to build. So Celia and team took the opportunity to raise the volume, using all of their resources to make as loud of a noise as possible, lobbying for much needed policy change. And it worked. “We were just a little part of it, but we’re really proud to be part of changing the bill.”
So began Celia’s relationship with the public sector, winning Hey Girls’ first contract with West Lothian council. Before she knew it they were working with 26 of 32 Scottish local authorities, shifting a large amount of product to schools and other public spaces.
Alongside advocacy and public sector work, Hey Girls also places a huge focus on education, dedicating their time and resources to share knowledge that improves healthcare, promotes dignity and removes stigmas, creating a more equal society. And they’re certainly not afraid to get messages across in bold and creative ways. Whether it’s their #Pads4Dads campaign with Barclays or their men’s incontinence pad vending machines in partnership with a construction company or dressing up as tampons on a beach to advocate for reusable products, for Celia, period education and lobbying come hand in hand.
The difference Celia and her team have made to people’s lives in the 6 years since Hey Girls inception is incredible. Over 40 million period products have been donated. 100% of profits have been invested in advocating for period dignity across the UK. Two laws have been helped to pass. Almost 400 community partners have been supported in taking care of vulnerable groups of people. A suite of period education material has been created for all to benefit from for free. There is no doubt that Celia’s work is not only helping to eradicate period poverty in Scotland and beyond, but it is breaking boundaries, shifting attitudes, enabling dignity and facilitating real change.
This change isn’t just happening at a policy level, it’s also happening at a human level. Just like when Celia was facing tough times and was helped out of poverty through the support and advocacy of others, now she is able to be the supporter and the advocate. And she is beginning to see the knock on effect manifest in others. “Someone sent me three pound coins stuck to a piece of paper to say, ‘you sent me some pads when I was really hard off and now I’ve got a job and want to give you your three pounds back. Another mum told me that she was able to take an extra shift at work thanks to having pads.”
When people are supported out of period poverty, they can begin to change their lives for the better. Celia is proving that period education and advocacy is just like a droplet of water - or perhaps more aptly, a droplet of blood - a ripple effect is inevitable.
