Adelaide influencer and pink-haired personality Jenna Hudson uses her social media platforms to break period taboos and raise awareness about menstrual health. (Image supplied: Jenna Hudson)
By Anna Ngov | @annangov
A young girl wakes up one morning with an unusual feeling in the pit of her stomach and a warm trickle trailing down her thighs. She lowers her head and all she sees are red stains on the bedsheets; the crimson is a harsh contrast against the soft white cotton fabric. She starts to panic and thinks, “Have I got cancer?”.
Another girl is at school and politely raises her hand to excuse herself to the bathroom. When she flushes the toilet later, she notices the water in the bowl is swirling with red. She is frightened and not sure about what to do or who to talk to. She hastily scrunches up some toilet paper, stuffs it into her underwear, and leaves the cubicle.
For South Australian digital creator Jenna Hudson, who uses her social media platforms to break menstrual taboos and raise more awareness about menstrual health, these are just some of the stories people share with her — stories that reveal the lived experiences and feelings of fear and uncertainty that arise from young people who are not properly taught about periods or how to navigate menstrual matters.
Better known as “Jenna With The Pink” to her TikTok and Instagram followers, the exuberant pink-haired personality first turned to content creation as a way of finding her feet again after COVID-19 left her getting laid off at a radio job and feeling uninspired.
“I just always wanted to do something a bit different and working a nine-to-five, or going to uni, just wasn’t it for me,” Hudson says.
This was when the idea of making TikTok videos came to mind and things started to look up.
“I was quite quickly earning a few hundred bucks a week [from brands] and was like, ‘I’m feeling if I just do this, it will all work out’,” she laughs.
The self-proclaimed “Pink Period Queen” was particularly inspired to create period content, while also tackling other important topics such as body positivity and inclusivity, after she noticed “there was a gap in the market” for female role models making fun content that was not strictly tied to a fashion, skincare or vanity focus.
“I love that kind of content too, but there wasn’t really anyone tackling some of the topics I talk about,” Hudson explains.
“I can’t believe there was no one else talking [in the way that I do] about periods!
“This is such a basic topic that women not only really need it to have more education around, but [for it] to become a fun thing that women can go, ‘We’re all in this together. We all get periods. Let’s bond over it.’”
Now, three years later, the 25-year-old has since nurtured an impressive “Pink Army” of social media followers, with 1.2 million followers on TikTok, as well as almost 35,000 followers on Instagram. While it is often easy to get caught up in the number of followers and likes, and in the superficial nature of social media itself, Hudson finds her elevated platform has more notably provided her with opportunities to get involved with important organisations, one of which is Kickstart for Kids.
“I am an ambassador for their period poverty initiatives, [which are to] get all schools in South Australia to have conversations about periods and also for all students to have the sanitary products that they really need as well,” she explains.
Hudson is also a proud ambassador for menstrual underwear brand, Modibodi, from which she is paid to create weekly content that not only shows the brand’s reusable products, but also promotes the concept of making periods eco-friendly.
“I feel so privileged to work with them. I think their product is absolutely revolutionary … [people] need to try Modibodi because they are so freaking good!” she says.
So, within a social world of growing followers, posting regular content, and working with different brands, what is the one thing that makes the “influencer” lifestyle the most worthwhile? Hudson, who feels like she speaks to the full spectrum of women who bleed, narrows it down to the genuine opportunities she has to help people and to have a real-life impact.
“When I receive a message from a young girl, or when I talk to a young girl who might say, ‘Oh, you’ve given me the confidence to do this’, or ‘I was able to have a conversation with my dad about periods because of you’ … that stuff just feeds my soul and just makes me feel so right,” she says.
“I think that if I could choose either to be famous or to continue to just help people, I just want to help people because, honestly, nothing feels better.”
For Hudson, a central part of doing what she does to help people is to simply “get conversations happening” — conversations that seek to remove the stigma surrounding periods and work towards normalising menstrual topics.
“I speak to women of absolutely all ages; from girls who have got their period for the first time and don’t know what to do, to grandmas who aren’t bleeding anymore and go, ‘Ooh, I don’t know if I should be discussing this’,” she says.
“It’s really just that. It’s just, ‘Let’s get talking about this.’”
And getting people talking is exactly what Hudson did in a TikTok video she filmed earlier this year, which has received 27.6 million views. In the video, the social media figure can be seen approaching strangers in a bustling Rundle Mall to ask whether or not they had any sanitary products she could use.
“I would go up to people and say, ‘I’m so sorry, but I’ve just started my period. Do you have a pad or tampon?’,” she explains.
“I got so many people who were just like, ‘No, sorry’, and didn’t offer to help.”
Hudson believes the main reason as to why the video received so much traction was because many women were entering the comments section to share their thoughts and what they would have done if put in the same situation.
“A lot of women were hopping on and saying, ‘Girl, if you approached me in the street, we’re going to the supermarket and I’m buying you pads’,” she says.
“I just like to make videos that make people think a little bit like, ‘Why didn’t anyone help?’”
It is in this sense of people and community where Hudson believes real power is found. While the world can often feel like an isolating place, she says the most important thing is to surround yourself with people who you truly trust and depend on.
“I think that if anyone is struggling with absolutely anything, like periods, self-confidence, body image — no matter what it is — you need to talk, and if the people around you aren’t listening, find the people who will,” she says.
“Because there will be people. They’re out there. So just keep searching.”
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