Bringing up tampons in a conversation can surely make the the convo turn awkward really fast. Why this is, we will never know, but it happens and we will leave it at that.
Andrea Gonzales and Sophie Houser, two NYC high school students don’t have this problem however. In fact, they don’t only talk about tampons, they created an awesome game that is all about tampons!
The pair met this past summer at Girls Who Code (@ IAC), an organization trying to close the gender gap in tech, where we cultivated our love of coding. Their final project was the coding of an 8-bit online video game called “Tampon Run”. The game is nostalgic looking and with an 8-bit interface, it looks a lot like the original Mario Bros. game on Nintendo.
You can play the game HERE!
Both had never been outspoken or candid when it came to periods, but as they researched, they learned that access to menstrual products and education is a global issue.
Only 12% of India’s 335 million women use sanitary napkins, according to the United Nations, which has also called the “stigma around menstruation and menstrual hygiene a violation of several human rights, most importantly of the right to human dignity.”
Trek over to Africa, and many girls don’t have access to sanitary pads or tampons. They’re forced to devise makeshift solutions out of basically anything that could stop the flow. This can ultimately lead to terrible infections or to girls missing so much school that they eventually drop out.
“This is a very important issue that a lot of people don’t think about, and that’s why we felt compelled to make the game,” Houser said.
We did play the game here at the Awesome Jelly office, and I personally only received a score of 19. This was mainly due to running out of tampons to shoot as I was wildly shooting them and could not reach a new box of tampons fast enough!
Enjoy! And just in case you missed the link above…You can play the game HERE! Oh…and the game is available on iPhone via the App Store.
