Always comes into a girl’s life during a big emotional turning point in her development: puberty.

It’s the most confusing and embarrassing time in her life. The time when her confidence takes a dramatic nosedive.

For 30 years, Always was committed to its purpose – to champion girls’ confidence by educating them during the critical time of puberty. But no one knew this because we weren’t talking about it.

As the category leader in feminine hygiene, Always plays a functional role in making periods easier with its superior protection. But could a pad brand do more? Could Always help protect a girl’s confidence too? We wanted girls to not just survive puberty—but to thrive, and emerge on the other side as strong, capable and confident women.

To show them that we were truly committed to our purpose, we decided to move beyond just conversation to create a real-life impact that would truly empower our girls.

We did this with a social experiment, devised to draw attention to the role society plays in a girl’s drop in confidence during puberty, with something as simple as the commonly used expression “like a girl.”