Twenty-two-year-old influencer twins Brooklyn and Bailey McKnight, with 6.97 million subscribers on YouTube, have begun a new video series, titled “Visiting All 50 States Before My Next Period” with the goal of completing the trip cross-country in a total of only 22 days — the amount of time before Bailey’s next menstrual cycle.

The larger goal behind this excursion? To raise money toward ending period poverty. 

“Brooklyn and I are going to be raising money for period supplies for people who cannot afford them,” said Bailey in the first video of the series. “If you are a person who menstruates, you know how important it is to have products when you need them most and the fact that there are so many people out there that struggle with this daily is something that Brooklyn and I want to try and tackle, especially now that period products are in short supply.”

Their goal was to raise $100,000 for the Alliance for Period Supplies which would pay for 1 million period products, such as pads or tampons. The twins are fundraising through a live donation link which can be found in their Instagram bio at @brooklynandbailey. In addition, if individuals do not have the money to donate, they can simply subscribe to their YouTube channel, as they are donating 1 cent per subscriber. This may not sound like much, but if they get 100,000 subscribers, they explained, this results in paying for 10,000 period products. 

“Even if you just donate your daily cup of coffee, which on average costs $5, that is 50 period products that could help somebody out,” Bailey explained in the video.

The twins have now far surpassed their goal of $100,000 and still have a little under a week left of their trip. Their new goal is $200,000 since the fundraiser has been so successful. 

“They reached out via social media to the director of Alliance for Period Supplies, Jennifer Gaines,” said Troy Moore, chief of external affairs for the organization. “It just evolved into a great campaign that we continue to be thrilled about.” 

He praised the McKnight sisters for breaking down the stigma around talking about period poverty.

In a video on their channel dated July 20, documenting day 7 of their journey, the young women arrived in Maine and New Hampshire. They are seen on YouTube standing in front of the state sign, driving across the Pisctaqua River Bridge on Interstate 95 from Portsmouth into Kittery Maine, and eating at Robert’s Maine Grill. On day 8, they drove back from Maine into New Hampshire spending the day at Bartlett’s Blueberry Farm in Newport, New Hampshire. 

The Alliance for period supplies reports that in New Hampshire, 1 in 9 women and girls between the ages of 12 and 44 live below the poverty line, and many of them can't afford the necessary products.

Nationally, 2 in 5 women struggle to purchase period products due to a lack of income. 

Many women who can’t afford pads and tampons are forced to use rags, paper towels, socks, toilet paper, and even cardboard in place of proper products, according to University of Michigan School of Public Health.

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Fortunately, New Hampshire does not tax period supplies, but on average a person will use approximately 9,120 tampons in their lifetime, according to the nursing program at Duquesne University. The average box of 36 tampons costs $7. When added to the cost of other feminine products such as heating pads to reduce cramps, underwear and birth control, the total amount throughout one’s life is roughly $18,171.

In addition, New Hampshire does not have any Alliance for Period Supplies member programs. These are the nonprofit businesses in each state that work with the Alliance to help distribute period products locally free of charge. Therefore, when Brooklyn and Bailey’s money is translated into over a million period products, these will get sent in large shipments to be distributed by member programs in states across the country.

Because New Hampshire has no member programs, it will not receive any products from this fundraiser.

Moore encourages New Hampshire nonprofits to reach out to them to become member programs with the Alliance for Period Supplies so that they can access period products as well as diapers since the alliance is partnered with the National Diaper Bank Network. These organizations must have either a 501(c)(3) nonprofit status or be fiscally sponsored as part of larger organizations. Oftentimes, church groups and food pantries will also disperse menstrual and diaper products, but they are open to any nonprofits that want to make a difference in their community. 

“New Hampshire has a lot of families in rural areas, and that's where poverty is really hidden,” Moore said. He emphasized even if supplies are available in the community, if people can’t afford a car, that adds another barrier to obtaining menstrual necessities.

There has been some forward motion on period poverty in New Hampshire in recent years.

Penelope Finnie, who served as chief creative officer of ask.com among other successful businesses, recently created a new business called Egal, which offers an innovative product called “pads on a roll.” The idea is menstrual pads are on a roll similar to a toilet paper roll and can be placed in public bathrooms.

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Her hope is they will be used in middle and high schools, universities and shared workspaces. Their first container ship is headed to her in a couple of weeks, and she hopes to get the product out as soon as possible.

“All biological functions should be treated equally,”  Finnie said.

However, this is not the first action taken to address the issue.

In 2019, Caroline Dillon, then a student at Spaulding High School in Rochester, was assigned a project in her U.S. history class to write a legislative bill about something she cared about. She noticed many of her classmates were missing class and not sometimes even coming to school because they did not have the financial means to access period products. Her project led to Senate Bill 142, which would require all schools in New Hampshire to provide menstrual supplies in female and gender-neutral public-school bathrooms.

She garnered the help of then-state Sen. Martha Hennessey, a Democrat from Hanover to take the project beyond the classroom and to the state Legislature.

“We were all dazzled by her. Her sophistication, her concern about this issue. She knew, frankly, knew more about period poverty in New Hampshire than any of the others of us,” Hennessey said recently, recalling Dillon's activism. “I was aware of period poverty in other countries around the world, but I was not as aware of what was going on in our own backyards. And so, she and I worked together, and we wrote a bill that we could bring to the Senate.”

When they first presented the bill, it was met with backlash from some Republican members of the Senate who argued that it was an unfunded mandate, meaning the schools would have to pay for these products. 

Hennessey countered, arguing many schools already pay for period products, but they are only offered at the nurse’s office. For students, she explained, it can be embarrassing having to ask for these products in front of male students and others who might be waiting in a line outside the nurse’s office, and additionally, it meant kids would have to miss part of class and risk menstruating through their clothes, while waiting in line behind other students who needed medication or a Band-Aid, rather than just accessing these supplies for themselves in the bathroom. 

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She added schools fund toilet paper, which is an equivalent necessity to menstrual products, and urinals are funded for boys bathrooms, though they're not a necessity.

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu ultimately signed the bill after it passed the House and Senate. 

“I think it's still a big issue,” said Dillon, now a college student who is aware there have been some bills put forward with the goal of dismantling SB 142. They were eventually tabled.

“I think just bringing awareness to it is the best thing to do," Dillon said. "Because once you realize that this is an issue, every single person that I've ever talked to about it has been like, ‘Oh, well, why aren't we doing something about that?’ And then once you get that ball rolling, it kind of turns into more. I think there's still a lot of work that can be done. And it doesn't have to look like saving the whole world all at once.”