Humans have been menstruating for millions of years, and yet, period misinformation is still present to this day. In fact, 80% of teenagers in the US affirm learning more about the biology of frogs than the female body in school. This lack of information leads to misconceptions and inaccuracies, reinforcing stigmas around menstruators bodies. More than half of menstruators are too ashamed to ask questions about their bodies. And now leading AI platforms are perpetuating society’s stigmas toward menstruation. Thinx, the leading period underwear brand in the US, believes only education can finally end stigma. And that menstrual health through body literacy is critical to gender equality as it helps safeguard women and trans men’s autonomy, ultimately contributing to normalizing normal body functions conversations and fighting gender misrepresentations.

Humans have been menstruating for thousands of years, and yet, period misinformation is still present to this day. In fact, 80% of teenagers in the US affirm they learn more about the biology of frogs than the female body in school. This lack of information leads to misconceptions and inaccuracies, reinforcing stigmas around menstruators' bodies. More than half of menstruators are too ashamed to ask questions about their bodies. And that’s not only far from ending, but leading AI image generating platforms are now perpetuating society’s stigma toward menstruation. So Thinx, the leading period underwear brand in the US, created a platform to help improve body literacy for all. And to launch it, we tapped into the biggest conversation in culture, Artificial Intelligence, to provoke humas to have more conversations about periods.

Humans have been menstruating for thousands of years, and yet, period misinformation is still present to this day. In fact, 80% of teenagers in the US affirm learning more about the biology of frogs than the female body in school. This lack of information leads to misconceptions and inaccuracies, reinforcing stigmas around menstruators' bodies. More than half of menstruators are too ashamed to ask questions about their bodies. And now leading AI platforms are perpetuating society’s stigmas toward menstruation. Thinx, the leading period underwear brand in the US, believes only education can finally end stigma. And that menstrual health through body literacy is critical to gender equality as it helps safeguard women and trans men’s autonomy, ultimately contributing to a society where their voices are heard and equally respected. It's about time to break this cycle of gender bias.

The cultural and social climate surrounding the topic of body literacy, and specifically menstruation, has been one of stigma and shame. This view has challenged the rights of women and girls by limiting access to school and jobs, due to lack of menstrual products, facilities or a combination of these. Misinformation about our bodies is everywhere. In fact, 8 in 10 teens and adults agree we need more in-depth education around menstrual health. And more than half of menstruators are too ashamed to ask questions about their bodies. That’s where Thinx come in. We believe that only education can put an end to centuries of stigma and misinformation. And by revealing that AI platforms are now mirroring the same stigma society has, we make a call for menstruators to fight back by getting body wise. Unless we stop the cycle now, the same bias that has been haunting us will be baked into defining our futures.

Get BodyWise is a comprehensive online educational resource to promote female body literacy. But Thinx’s mission to increase body literacy for all would be futile, without first getting humans to acknowledge our own deep-seated bias. So we held a mirror up to society with the help of the world’s most biased: AI image generators. An integrated campaign revealed the human bias on AI related to menstruation, highlighting how simple prompts like “girl during puberty” or “woman during menopause” on leading AI image generators depict shame, despair, dystopia, or are even banned.

With a very limited budget of production and media, Thinx strategy was to jump into the biggest conversation in culture right now – Artificial Intelligence – to normalize a very important conversation: menstruation and normal female body functions. By revealing that AI sees menstruation with the same stigma society does, Thinx made a powerful case on the importance of body literacy to a better gender representation and empowerment.

An integrated campaign including a 30 second film revealed how simple prompts on leading AI image generators, like “girl during puberty”, “talking about menstruation, “woman during menopause”, ‘a woman with PMs” created images of women depicting shame, despair or dystopia. Since AI image generators often draw from copyrighted material, including from female artists, we hired female illustrators from around the world to recreate the images the AI platforms created, making it possible to both protect the rights of human artists, while also keeping the integrity of the concept. You can see the images created by AI and the artists in the supporting materials.

With a very limited budget of production and media, the campaign had 10 million impressions so far and it was mentioned in high profile media publications, such as Fast Company, AdAge, Campaign US, and also in many health publications. The online platform keeps seeing thousands of new users every week and generated a record-breaking number of social conversations about body literacy.

Thinx believes the only way to end stigma related to menstruation and normalize period conversations in the long run is through education. That’s why we didn’t launch just a campaign, but a educational platform to promote body literacy and fight period poverty. By revealing our society’s stigma is being perpetuated on AI platforms, we provoked people to take an action and stop the cycle now, or the same bias that has been haunting us will be baked into defining our futures. Thinx will continue its mission against body stigma and period poverty. We're going to create school curriculum to help close the gap where the education system is failing. And partner with mind-like organizations to distribute period products for free for menstruators in need.