Make It Happen

GET UP. SPEAK UP. DON’T GIVE UP.

In the spring of 2017, 17-year-old Amika George founded the Free Periods movement on behalf of every schoolgirl who couldn’t afford tampons or sanitary towels.

Three years later, in January 2020, these products became freely available to every schoolgirl in England for the first time, funded by the government.

Anyone can make history, including a teenager launching a global campaign from their bedroom. And Amika will show you how, in this essential guide to being an activist.

With chapters on finding your crowd and creating allies, going public with your campaign, how to use social media effectively and how to look after your mental health while protesting, Amika will show you how you can effect real and lasting change in your community, on the streets of your city, on your social media feed, in your country and in YOUR world.

• Is the environment being overlooked in favour of driving profits?
• Do you see injustice and suffering all around you?
• Have you hit upon a way to make the world a better place?

This – rallying cry, stories and lessons, and interviews from Amika’s fellow protestors and other changemakers, including Caroline Criado-Perez, Deborah Frances-White, Adwoah Aboha, Nicola Mendelsohn and Scarlett Curtis – is your book.

It’s not too late. You’re not too young. You are important. Rise up and be the change you want to see.

About the Author

Amika George is a 20-year-old student at Cambridge University, who, at the age of 17, started the Free Periods campaign from her bedroom to end period poverty in the UK. After reading about children missing school, as they were unable to afford menstrual products, Amika started an online movement, organised a protest in London, attended by over 2,000 young people, and launched a legal campaign.

In 2019, Her campaign successfully persuaded the UK government to provide free menstrual products in all English schools and colleges from January 2020.She has received global recognition for her campaigning work, including receiving a Goalkeepers Campaign award by Bill & Melinda Gates, in conjunction with the United Nations, and was listed by TIME magazine as one of the 25 most influential teenagers in the world.

She continues to campaign to ensure that every child worldwide has access to education, uninhibited by their period, and works to eradicate the taboo around periods.