A woman ran a Boston 10K dressed as a tampon. Here’s why.
"When in your life would you ever expect anyone to be so excited to see a tampon running down the street?”
Anyone watching the runners pass by at the Boston 10K for Women on Monday may have been met with an unexpected site — a running tampon.
Thyme Sullivan in her tampon costume on race day.
But it wasn’t just any tampon, according to Thyme Sullivan, the woman inside the tampon costume, complete with a hole for her face, two arm holes, and a string in the middle.
“It was actually funny,” she said. “I said, ‘I’m actually a super tampon.’ I didn’t even realize how funny that was at the time.”
Behind Sullivan’s uncommon choice in running gear was a message — that it’s important for women to have the choice of organic feminine hygiene products, and to advocate for “cleaner and safer” product options, she said.
In January, Sullivan, along with her cousin and business partner Denielle Finkelstein, founded TOP The Organic Project. The company, based in Duxbury, sells feminine hygiene products made in Europe from organic cotton. They’re also completely biodegradable.
“They’re priced reasonably so that they can be accessible to everyone,” Sullivan said.
The company also donates products. For example, enough feminine products for 250 girls will be donated to Dignity Matters, a Framingham-based nonprofit that provides products to those in need — one for each runner who signed up to be part of TOP’s race team.
SNAP benefits don’t cover purchasing feminine hygiene products, Dignity Matter’s website says.
“In most states, there are thousands of women who do not have an extra $10 each month to spend on sanitary supplies,” according to the organization’s website. “As a result, these women and school-aged girls are forced to resort to unsanitary alternatives (or skipping schools/work altogether).”
Sullivan said she and Finkelstein have young daughters, and they believe it’s important for them to have the choice of organic feminine hygiene. Her 13-year-old daughter was “horrified” when she first started wearing the tampon costume, she said.
“Now all her friends want to come to our events,” Sullivan said. “She brings a giant bag of tampons to school and everybody goes to see her if they need them, and really what it’s done is it’s completely destigmatized a taboo topic.”
TOP focuses its donations on schools, Sullivan said. She noted that the company wants to help remove the stigma associated with talking about periods, and help girls and women feel confident going about their daily activities, like going to the beach or a pool party, regardless of whether they have their period.
“Yesterday running that race, I felt like a rockstar,” Sullivan said. At the water stops along the way, her tampon costume was met with cheers. “They were like, ‘We love you tampon!’ When in your life would you ever expect anyone to be so excited to see a tampon running down the street?”
Part of the company’s mission is to bring positivity to the topic of feminine hygiene – there’s video’s on TOP’s Youtube channel of Sullivan doing various things, from training for the race to doing yoga, in the tampon costume.
“If you can laugh about it, you can talk about it,” she said. “And it opens up the dialogue.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjKwqZe0Ads
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