Images by Sam Kovacic and Tess Newton

Welcome to the Good Human Series, a space where we celebrate the good in humanity by sharing the stories of impact focused individuals making a positive change in the world through their work.

TABOO is an Australian founded social enterprise tackling period poverty, which is reported to affect 800 million women globally.
With a shared passion for social justice and a vision for menstruation to be a more understood topic in society, Taboo’s founders Isobel Marshall and Eloise Hall very quickly went from being highschool best friends to business partners.

Their plan was to sell period products in Australia and have 100% of profits go to One Girl - an organisation that runs programs for girls in Sierra and Uganda with a mission to ensure that these communities have access to products and education related to period and hygiene.

5 years on and Taboo's now team of 11 have impacted over 10,000 girls through One Girl thanks to the support of their Australian customers. They have also this year launched The Flow Podcast, which discusses health, wellbeing, gender equality and of course, periods.

Taboo has made it possible for everyday Australians to be able to have a positive impact on the world through the products they use.

Today on the Good Humans Series, we chat to Taboos Founders Eloise and Isobel, and Taboo Health and Education Officer Ophelia Veloudos about the positive impact Taboo has had so far, designing a product that is both socially and environmentally sustainable, and their journey in starting a social enterprise at such a young age.

Taboo has made it possible for everyday Australians to be able to have a positive impact on the world through the products they use.

For those who may be newer to the term, can you describe what period poverty refers to, and its prevalence globally but also here in Australia?

Isobel: Absolutely. So in its essence, period poverty is when someone is unable to afford or access period products or the right support they need to do with their period in an appropriate way, in an effective way, and also in a dignified way.

Period poverty exists all over the world. Eloise and I discovered period poverty at the very beginning of our journey with TABOO. We discovered and were quite angered by the fact that 30% of girls in developing countries dropped out of school as soon as they got their period. And that is, I guess, evidence of this term period poverty.

Period poverty manifests in a lack of education for people who bleed but also a lack of employment opportunities, disrupted employment, and then of course, because of that, it feels things like poverty in general, and also gender inequality.

In Australia, we've learnt since starting TABOO, that there is very much period poverty here too. There are people who have their schooling severely disrupted because of their period. And that may be because they can't access or afford period products. But also, there's a huge gap in our education system around periods, and for that reason, they're highly stigmatised. But they're also highly misunderstood, and so that also contributes to this issue of period poverty.

Can you speak to the impact TABOO has had so far? The people impacted and how TABOO has had a positive effect on their lives?

What we generate as a company is then invested into projects that alleviate period poverty from communities. And before we are in a position to make a profit and give that profit way, the most effective and exciting opportunity, we've had to make a difference in the alleviation of period poverty is in Australia through our Pad It Forward program.

So we have heaps of people buying our pads every month on behalf of someone at risk of period poverty in Australia, and we've been working with people who represent minority groups in the country, and organisations who look after these people. So we've got connections with community groups that look after disadvantaged youth. We've got communities in rural Australia who are geographically quite isolated. We have nurses, midwives, teachers, a whole range of people reaching out for product, we've contributed more than 1300 boxes of pads to this initiative so far.

And we know that the products are doing far more than just filling a need. It's also inspiring those people who are receiving the product to continue with their weeks, jobs, schooling and all the rest.

Isobel: And I’ll just add that the stigma surrounding menstruation and periods is a huge fuel to period poverty, no matter where you are in the world, or what culture you identify with or anything like that. And a lot of our activities around taboo have always centred upon alleviating the stigma, sparking conversations and reframing periods in a much more positive celebratory light. Which, of course then means that people are more comfortable to talk about their own experiences, learn from other experiences, and then make you know, structural policy change to actually alleviate the issue as well.

“What we generate as a company is then invested into projects that alleviate period poverty from communities. And before we are in a position to make a profit and give that profit way, the most effective and exciting opportunity, we've had to make a difference in the alleviation of period poverty is in Australia through our Pad It Forward program..."

Eloise wears the Lori Playsuit.

Isobel, you are currently studying a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery. Have you always been drawn to a career in healthcare or has TABOO sparked this interest for you?

Isobel: Yes, I've completed three years of my medical degree, I deferred this year, and I'll head back next year for my placement years. I actually wanted to do medicine since year eight. I read an amazing book by an obstetrician gynaecologist who, I guess reading that book, I could see myself in that space pretty clearly. I loved the intersection between biology and female anatomy and how that plays out on a broader scale in terms of gender equality and how we existed communities and societies.

I think that since then, as TABOO has developed and grown, that passion has been further ignited. And I'm really keen to see where the combination takes me in the area of women's health care.

Isobel wears Abigail Jeans in New Blue and Eloise wears the Lori Playsuit.

Going from high school students to social enterprise co-founders in such a short space of time was such a brave and inspiring move that we’re sure must have had its daunting but very rewarding moments. Can you speak to what, in those earliest days, were the source of your inspiration, mentorship, and motivation to keep pushing forward?

Eloise: We were quite lucky in having a good healthy sense of naivety, we were very passionate about the concept we had just learned about which was the social enterprise model. And we were really heartbroken and driven to eradicate period poverty and whatever capacity we could. So we had a lot of energy and a lot of passion for what would be the social enterprise of TABOO. And that's really what dragged us through the first early years.

There was certainly a lot of uncertainty, we didn't know exactly which direction to take, or, you know, the right or wrong decisions that were ahead of us. So we're really lucky to seek out some good mentors and to have a lot of people's advice from a different variety of experience and perspective. We've very quickly learned to discern that information instantly, and really refine what people's advice meant in our capacity and now business. So there was a lot of encouragement there.

I signed up to do business in international relations in 2018, which very much helped my, I guess, theoretical understanding of how business works. But yeah, we've really just hung tight to a continuous learning mentality to make sure that we're always learning from other people and other people's experiences, too.

Isobel you recently wrote a piece for PopSugar on balancing the demands of running a social enterprise with the need to occasionally pause and ‘fill your cup’ as they say. What have you been doing lately to focus on your own wellbeing? Has your studies in medicine highlighted to you the importance of taking this time for yourself and reframing how you think about downtime?

Isobel: Yeah, that's interesting, I haven't thought of it through the lens of what study has taught me. I guess, looking forward to placement years - placement is very much being in the hospital and then needing to do homework when you get home or study when you get home, which is a fairly full schedule. But in the last years juggling Med and TABOO, there's certainly been a learning curve of what ways to, to deal with that and focus on wellbeing when it seems very overwhelming, and like, there's no time to focus on wellbeing.

We've been very lucky to have such a supportive team and to have each other to kind of lighten the load, and focus on each other's strengths, and go from there. So we've definitely learnt that skill over time. But there's still so far to go with that. And I personally love sitting down for a coffee or a drink with a friend and not even talking much about TABOO, just talking about general life. That's always a bit of a, I guess, a holiday for your brain. And yeah, I love spending time with my dogs - that brings me a lot of joy. And I recently found a lot of solace in painting. And I'm not very good at it all, but I find it very therapeutic and the hours passed really quickly. But I like having that thing to focus on with a kind of a goal in mind to kind of have this thing to prove that your time is spent on relaxing, which is nice.

Ophelia: It's funny how like, a lot of the things that you enjoy doing now a lot of the time of things that you enjoyed doing when you were young. Not that painting is childish, but it's something that you would do more often when you're young.

Eloise: Yeah, I love any opportunity to be creative, even just sitting in the garden and dreaming. I'm a bit of a bit of a daydreamer. But yeah, I love painting, writing poetry, anything that can stretch the brain in an exciting way, something that's not very confined by rules or expectations.

"We’ve always seen business as a force for good and our approach to Thankyou when we first started still remains the same today - it wasn’t about starting a business that could also do some good in the world. It was about using business as a means to right a social injustice."

Ophelia wears the Boyfriend Origins Tee in charcoal

TABOO’s cause isn’t the only thing impressive about the brand - you also produce really really good products. Can you speak to the product design journey - particularly ethical production and the choice to use one of the fibres we’re most passionate about - organic cotton.

Eloise: Yeah, we were very lucky in the I guess youth of starting the company, we were very sure to never compromise on our ethical standards or environmental standards. When we were seeking out a manufacturer, that was the number one thing we really had in mind. We ended up finding a manufacturer who uses hydro electricity to run their factory, so the actual energy that's used in the production is carbon neutral.

We have certified organic cotton products so that you know, there's so much better for your body, then synthetic materials, and the cotton's ethically sourced, they have no bleaching, no chemical bleaching. Yeah, we're really proud of that material. The boxes are made from recycled cardboard, the plastics biodegradable, we kind of made sure that every inch of our delivery was up to the standard that we were proud of as well. And we want to make sure that the kind of economy that we are working in and the mission of eradicating period poverty is all inclusive, and we're not creating problems by solving another. So we're quite holistic in how the circular economy kind of style of businesses is implemented.

Ophelia: I love that idea of having a business that has its own ethical soul to it, you feel as like a customer, you feel more of a connection to it.

Isobel: And it's interesting being in this social enterprise space as well particularly at this point in time, because traditionally, brands or products or services that have had a social cause have been considered of lesser quality, or perhaps, you know, the quality has been sacrificed because of the social impact behind it. But we're super focused on making sure that our product stands on its own two legs, even before the social impact is considered. And then that impact is really the thing that people can jump on board with and feel a sense of community and passion and motivation and mission around.

What makes you hopeful?

Ophelia: To be honest, one thing that really makes me hopeful is the reception that we've gotten from the podcast, the fact that we've had people come up to us and feel comfortable to either share their story with us and, or the experience that we chat about on the podcast. The fact that they feel comfortable talking about it with someone or even if they've never spoken about it to anyone before. They almost pass that burden off - that ‘I'm not alone in this’ feeling.

Even if you know only two people listen, if one of them feels a bit of comfort from what we're talking about, that just makes my day. So to be honest, the podcast has really been making me hopeful and hopeful for the fact that the next generation of girls coming through is going to have a little bit more education out there about what's going on in their bodies and hopefully build a bit more of a community aspect rather than having that stigma, keep people away from talking about what they're experiencing.

Isobel: Yeah, definitely in relation to the podcast like that community and conversation is really hope giving. And then in the broader sense that the fact that our products are being really well received is really exciting. The fact that we've had incredible opportunities to share our mission with amazing audiences and demographics. It just speaks to the fact that this conversation is now opening up and change can actually happen from that place, which is really exciting.

Isobel wears Abigail Jeans in New Blue.

What’s on the horizon? Where can people get their hands on TABOO’s products and listen to the podcast?

Ophelia: Well, in terms of our product, if you are based in SA TABOO is in Foodland, OTR and National Pharmacies. So that's really exciting. And then, if you are interstate, we've also got our website Tabooau.co. We have this awesome subscription model, where you don't really need to think about the fact that you're, like needing to buy a product, it just arrives at your door every month.

And then in terms of our podcast, we have just wrapped up season one, which was so awesome. And it's so exciting that we have such a full season two already organised. So if you guys would love to join our little community, we are available on all podcasting platforms, whether it's Apple podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else that you listen to your podcasts.

To learn more about TABOO or to purchase visit Tabooau.co. To listen to the TABOO podcast, simply search ‘The Flow’ anywhere that you listen to podcasts.
Then, we invite you to explore more of the Outland Journal, for more stories of humans doing good things..