period.

A supportive and inclusive community for women to share menstrual products and foster a positive mindset around menstrual cycles.

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Inspiration

As young women, we are still getting adjusted to our menstrual cycles and don't have our feminine hygiene products on us at all times. What should we do when we end up getting our periods at the most unexpected times such as when we are at a public place?

What it does

period is a platform for women to support each other during their menstrual periods. Oftentimes, periods come on days when we are least prepared, leaving us helpless without female hygiene products. period allows you to anonymously (or not) ask for nearby women's extra feminine products. In the app, we have a map showing where you are and those close to you who are willing to be a provider for your products! Choose whoever and contact them. You can also volunteer as a menstrual helper to support women around us. Finally, they can learn more about menstrual cycles through various podcasts, Youtube videos, and articles featured on the website.

How we built it

We coded the app using React.JS, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, Chakra UI, and Javascript. We also prototyped the app using Figma.

There are 3 main pages on the site. First is the about page where users can learn more about our mission and sign up as a menstrual helper to help other women who do not have female hygiene products with them during their periods. The second page is the resource page which strives to create a voice in the community saying that women are not alone when experiencing their menstrual days, providing a safe space for women to freely and safely search for answers about the menstrual cycle whether it is through podcasts, Youtube videos, or articles. The final page is the most important page of the site which is where users can search for women nearby with female hygiene products they need through providing their current location which the site will then display a list of people nearby with pads containing their names, distances away, phone numbers, and short descriptions.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into lots of challenges throughout these 2 days. Since all of us are freshmen and rather new to the hackathon world as well as the technologies we used in this project, we faced a lot of challenges not only creating the project within 24 hours but also learning skills we need on the way in order to build the site within such a short timeframe. For example, we were new to React and the concept of routing which was required for this project to incorporate the different pages. With covid, we were also unable to work on the project together in person and only able to see each other through Zoom which made problem-solving even harder.

However, we were able to solve the various problems through amazing teamwork, communication, and collaboration. We had check-up zoom calls around once every 3-4 hours to check each others’ progress and see if there are any technical difficulties that we can help each other with. We also stayed online the entire day to make sure questions are answered as quickly as they can be and make communication more effective and efficient. Though we were not working together physically, we supported each other throughout the way which is what made this hackathon experience fun and successful.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are very proud of the progress we've made as a team this past 24 hours, learning about various features of the languages we used throughout the way, collaborating with each other effectively, and being able to present a complete product by the end.

What we learned

We have learned a lot throughout the past 24 hours. In terms of the technical portions, we learned a lot more about how to take advantage of various functionalities of React, html, css, and JavaScript, such as routing for React, Flexbox in css to format the home page, bootstrap to construct the navigation bar. Through working together as a team for this hackathon virtually, we have also learned how to most effectively collaborate and communicate with each other in a virtual setting with short check-up calls once every few hours to help each other with technical difficulties we are facing with screen sharing while also remaining online the rest of the time to maintain efficient communication for any short questions.

What's next for period.

Continuing on from the hackathon, we would love to add more resources to our site with possibly a search bar iterating through all of the resources. Alongside this, we want to continue prioritizing safety on the app. While we are said that we would do background checks, it would be nice to implement chatbox feature already inside the site, so that messages cannot be sent between the helper and client after the "transaction".

Potential Impact

Following off from the demo, we will talk more about the impact of the app. In present times, menstrual cycles are often viewed negatively, causing women to have negative thoughts on top of painful cramps. We hope that this website can empower women during the days of their menstrual cycles, not only providing them a way to find feminine hygiene products when they are in need but also learn more about menstrual cycles and foster a more positive mindset surrounding them. We envision this website to be a welcoming community for all women to empower each other.

Video Timestamps

Answer #1: 0:06 Answer #2: 0:45 Answer #3: 2:54 Answer #4: 3:25 Answer #5: 3:55

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