YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Advocate Amy Orr – Breaking Period Stigma | Famous Interviews with Joe Dimino

Advocate Amy Orr – Breaking Period Stigma | Famous Interviews with Joe Dimino — Transcript

by Famous Interviews with Joe Dimino · 3,885 words · 572 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00was good yeah well it's wonderful to
0:02meet you thank you for taking a minute
0:03out today thanks for having me yeah so
0:07I'm looking forward to getting into your
0:08work and the awareness that you're
0:10putting out into the world before we do
0:12that I want to ask you this one of the
0:14more momentous things that we went
0:16through In Our Lifetime was this
0:17pandemic four and a half years ago and
0:19it created so much of a shift and change
0:22in all of us how much of living through
0:24that time period has affected the work
0:27and what you're doing right now with
0:28your life
0:30um it's actually affected my business
0:32greatly
0:34I start I've completely restructured my
0:38my business basically so I started off
0:40in
0:412019 and then at the end of 2020 I
0:44decided to open a
0:46shop bricks and mortar shop so I ran an
0:49online uh plastic free zero waste shop
0:52so everything was reusable
0:54refillable um plastic free alternatives
0:57to everyday items like toothbrushes
1:00bamboo toothbrushes toothpaste tabs um
1:03items for your kitchen toilet brush
1:05wooden toilet brushes that kind of thing
1:07so among that was some period products
1:10as well reusable period products
1:12so uh I discovered in May last year
1:17that the bricks and mortar retail just
1:21wasn't for me so I have completely
1:24restructured my business again um since
1:272019 I used to give talks and workshops
1:30you know so over the past five six years
1:32I've given talks and workshops with
1:34local libraries um Trinity College in
1:37Dublin um and I realized in May last
1:42year that talks are what I want to do I
1:46find that it's great selling people or
1:49having these items alternative items
1:51that people can buy
1:53but I prefer to actually I feel like I
1:58can achieve more by
2:00talking about them and one of the areas
2:03that I'm really passionate about is um
2:05periods and the whole stigma surrounding
2:08periods um and I still do sell the
2:10period products but that's all I sell
2:12now yeah um yeah so I've completely
2:17changed model so so I'm curious with
2:21this change has it saved a lot of money
2:24a lot of resources has it allowed you to
2:26kind of reallocate what you were doing
2:28before in a different direction
2:31um yeah it's def I don't know if I've
2:33saved money certainly like I don't have
2:36to worry about buying as much stock in
2:37anymore um I don't have to worry about
2:39that stock selling because the talks and
2:42workshops kind of are my main focus and
2:44then I have the small amount of stock
2:47there on the website that people can
2:49access
2:51um but yeah so I'm working with like the
2:54local Council here and we are providing
2:57we're doing some talks and through those
3:00talks with the local libraries we are
3:03supplying students in schools here in
3:05Waterford with free reusable cloth pads
3:08yeah so we're helping to kind of bridge
3:11the the period poverty Gap that's there
3:14as well unfortunately for such a rich
3:16country Ireland
3:18is really bad in terms of period poverty
3:21and even hygiene poverty is a huge issue
3:23for a lot of people um specifically
3:26since covid and the cost of living
3:28crisis which is hit the entire world I
3:32suppose
3:33um yeah so I'm you know the one thing
3:37I've read some books about African
3:40villages where they're trying to get
3:42water and they're trying to get basic
3:44necessities to live and you know the
3:47girls can't go to school because of
3:49hygiene issues and I just you know being
3:51a male and not being in that environment
3:54it just didn't dawn on me but it's so
3:56essential for everything you know for
4:00for these kids because if they can't I
4:02mean that's why there's so many girls in
4:04Africa that aren't educated because they
4:06they literally can't go to
4:08school yeah um and one of the companies
4:11that I work with uh they're called eim
4:13so they make all the cloth pads that I
4:17stock um and I've been working with them
4:19for the past five years and I love their
4:21product because what they do they have
4:23like a pad for pad program so when I
4:25buy the pads from them I pay uh pad for-
4:30pad contribution and they use that
4:32contribution
4:34to um excuse me they use that
4:38contribution to supply young women in
4:40rural India with free cloth pads and
4:43they through their educational programs
4:45so they run programs on Breaking the
4:48stigmatism um surrounding periods
4:51teaching the girls proper hygiene the
4:53cloth pads are relatively easy to use
4:55because not a lot of the girls would
4:57have access to the facilities that we
4:58would like running water that kind of
5:00thing so um and like that similar in
5:05many cultures you know periods are seen
5:07as as dirty and that girls should be
5:09ashamed of them some women aren't even
5:11allowed to leave the house um they're
5:14hidden away for like the three or five
5:16days every month um but it's also a
5:20thing here in Ireland so there was a
5:22study done in 2018 and this study 1100
5:26girls um were surveyed and the study
5:29found that
5:3250% um between the ages of 12 and 19
5:35find it difficult to pay for Sanitary
5:37products 61% have missed school as a
5:40result of having their period um 55%
5:42were embarrassed by their period um and
5:46about
5:4710% were using
5:51um not like alternatives to Sri products
5:56to Menor products um not
6:00necessarily the best Alternatives so but
6:03like a lot of 61% of girls missing
6:06school because they had the period and
6:07probably because they just didn't have
6:10access to the products needed um and
6:14there's a great initiative here so it's
6:16like it's even in rich
6:19countries there is this issue and is
6:22Ireland kind of also has
6:24this Catholic guilt which is instilled
6:29it's it's just it's so deeply ingrained
6:33in Irish culture um it's definitely
6:36changing now but certainly like in my
6:38parents Generation Um my mom's 75 now
6:42like in her
6:43day it just wasn't talked about yeah you
6:46know I mean and this is something that
6:4751% of the entire population on the
6:49planet will experience yeah at some
6:52stage throughout their life and it's
6:55just yeah there's so much like
7:00education yeah that's needed um vital
7:04education um the government introduced
7:07products here like free products here
7:10free period products through the librar
7:13so you can go into any public library
7:15and you can get as much take as much as
7:18you want okay or as much as you need um
7:21but they're all disposables so I did a
7:24talk in Trinity College in Dublin and
7:26the students were saying that they got a
7:27grant and they were working with a small
7:30company in Cork um and this company were
7:34supplying organic cotton tampons and
7:36pads but then the funding ran out
7:39so those students no longer had access
7:42to these period products um whereas if
7:45they were all
7:46reusables that were supplied they'd
7:49still be using them and they would still
7:50have them because they can last for up
7:52to five years
7:53so um not only is there the
7:56environmental aspect but it can also
7:57save you money in the long run so
8:00I'm working with the council here in
8:02Waterford the city council and the
8:04County Council um and uh initiative
8:08called healthy Ireland um so we're
8:12basically their buying kits and I'm
8:15supplying the students and doing the
8:17talks so with the reusable period
8:19products so I don't think there's
8:21anywhere else in Ireland that's doing
8:24that yet
8:27yeah yeah
8:30so let me go back in your life to when
8:32you were a kid what was your dream what
8:35did you want to be when you grew up I
8:37wanted to be an actress
8:39okay and I my background I went to
8:43college and I studied Film Production
8:44and editing um I am an apple certified
8:47video
8:49editor um and I ran my own video
8:54production company
8:56for um from 200
9:00and eight
9:02until until my son was born
9:052015 um yeah so my background is so what
9:09I'm doing now is completely different to
9:11what I did back then um but it stood to
9:15me because I basically I generate my own
9:17content
9:18and you know the editing skills have
9:20come in really handy so yeah but yeah
9:23I've done like where I am now is nowhere
9:27near and obviously I still haven't
9:30got the whole acting thing off the
9:32ground so so let me ask you this take me
9:35back to your childhood what were the
9:36seeds that were planted into you that
9:39have have grown into you being an
9:41activist and and and and providing
9:43awareness to the public and how did you
9:46make this turn from from acting and film
9:49into this Pursuit now honestly it it
9:54didn't really start until I was pregnant
9:55with my son and I was researching like
9:59like cloth nappies and using cloth
10:01nappies um that's when it really started
10:05I was like wow there's a lot of waste
10:07generated by just one child um and then
10:11we just started using making small
10:13little changes in our lives over the
10:16years and then in 2019 I decided to just
10:18bite the bullet but in terms of growing
10:21up
10:22like I mean recycling back in Ireland in
10:26the 90s just wasn't really a thing um
10:31I didn't really become environmentally
10:34aware until
10:37probably I was in college I would say um
10:41and I actually did went over to the
10:42States on like a J1 student visa for the
10:45summer so things are just really
10:48different over there I was in New Jersey
10:52um yeah but Ireland like I think since
10:57we joined the EU things a lot of things
10:58have changed
11:00obviously um but also I like I don't
11:02think recycling is the answer either but
11:05not so much my childhood it was more
11:08kind of as an adult I suppose yeah um I
11:13really started when I was pregnant on my
11:15son I really
11:16started reading more on like the
11:19environmental impacts and obviously you
11:22know you're you're bringing a tiny
11:25person into the world you want to kind
11:26of I suppose I took more interest in
11:29kind of a world I was bringing him into
11:31yeah um yeah well I guess kind of thing
11:35I didn't even think about when I grew up
11:37compared to what my kids come home from
11:38school telling me you know and the stuff
11:40that they're learning
11:43um Ireland's definitely come a long way
11:46you know since my day in school um yeah
11:50it it it almost seems like what you're
11:52doing is kind of that model of like
11:54subscription based kind of like Netflix
11:56model like it's all everything adds up
12:00and when I think about it it's like what
12:02you're talking about you on your end was
12:04you're going to try to eliminate that
12:06waste and if people would just adopt
12:07that into a few areas of their lives
12:10there would be a very massive impact but
12:13it's just going to take those little
12:14things and I think sometimes people
12:16think well what am I going to do I'm
12:17just one person but that's the point
12:20right I mean everybody can do something
12:23together and collectively it can become
12:24a
12:25movement that's is I mean with this a
12:28quot it's like oh it's just one straw 8
12:31billion people you know I mean
12:35even H I can't think of the stats now
12:38but
12:40like there is I mean the
12:45average baby so the average birth rate
12:48in Ireland every year is 45,000 okay so
12:51if every one of those parents even used
12:54one cloth nappy a day when you knew that
12:55you were going to be
12:57home and you knew you weren't going to
12:59leave the house so if there was any
13:00accidents or leaks or anything you know
13:02you'd be home you could change the child
13:04whatever um but like one cloth nappy a
13:09day 365 days times
13:1245,000 that is a consider considerable
13:16amount of disposable nappies yeah that
13:19aren't going into landfill do you know
13:21what I mean that is just like
13:23one nappy a day yeah um and the same
13:27with like the cloth pads
13:29I mean they have the potential to um
13:34sorry Joe give me one second now yeah no
13:36worries
13:38um I'm going to give you the actual
13:40stats sure um that I have here so sorry
13:46I just have to bring it no you're fine
13:49um how am I doing so far this is my
13:51first podcast oh wow no you're doing
13:53wonderful this is excellent okay I your
13:57questions okay I tend to Waffle a bit no
13:59you're fine that's good what you're
14:00doing in that process is kind of
14:02knocking down all these little dominoes
14:04that I'm putting in a little racetrack
14:06so it's like if if I don't get to that
14:08question it's because you knocked it
14:09down early on so it's good okay oh good
14:11okay um yeah so the 120 kits that I've
14:17distributed to students through my talk
14:20so far have the potential to save 39,000
14:24disposables wow ending up in landfills
14:27and waterways and it in turn save
14:30families 78,000 Euro over the next five
14:33years and that's only
14:35120 kids yeah yeah um 120 girls and
14:40people so you know and that's just one
14:44class in one school or like four
14:47different schools four different classes
14:49of 30 kids
14:51it's that's the impact that such a small
14:55number can have so you can imagine I
14:57mean there's 5,000 students Al together
15:00in Watford schools primary and secondary
15:03schools so you can imagine the impact of
15:065,000 of those kits could have
15:08absolutely the amount of money that it
15:10would save and that like it would
15:12save the companies and the councils and
15:16the country money as well because
15:19obviously they're getting hiring
15:22engineer firms to try and fix the issues
15:25with the old Waterway systems um and
15:28improve them um and a lot of those
15:30issues are coming from disposables yeah
15:34being flushed whether it's cloth white
15:36or wipes people cut up nappies and flush
15:41nappies um because they don't want to
15:43pay in
15:45charges um you know obviously a lot of
15:48um period products are in there as well
15:51so there's a lot of stuff being flushed
15:53that shouldn't be flushed yeah um so
15:56yeah it just has the like it's just a
15:58no-brainer to me
16:00um I just don't know why it's
16:04not why it hasn't snowballed I supp yes
16:09well we're going to do our little part
16:10here and and you're doing a big part
16:12with the work you're doing so who's you
16:14know in any Pursuit that we do in life
16:16there's always an inspirational figure
16:18kind of a hero that's there who is that
16:20for you in your
16:24work do you have one no okay none that I
16:29can think of really like
16:33there's oh God that's a really hard
16:35question
16:37because I can't just pinpoint like one
16:40person well how about
16:42this how about this if is there anyone
16:45out there in the world of activism or
16:48getting doing something that's going to
16:50globally be um beneficial to all of us
16:53that you would like to meet to see how
16:55they do to just have a portal into how
16:57they work that may benefit you um I
17:01think Greta thunberg
17:04has like just really brought um I'd love
17:10to meet her she's an amazing young woman
17:13um and I think that she has really
17:15brought really Shone a light
17:18on the state of the world yeah I I know
17:22a lot of people give out about the just
17:24stop oil activists but yes some of the
17:28stuff is Extreme but I mean if we keep
17:32going the way we're going obviously
17:34there is no such thing as art on a dead
17:37planet
17:39um I don't actually know any names of
17:41Who's involved in just upop oil but um I
17:45understand some people are like oh
17:46they're interrupting you know
17:49performances on stage and on Broadway
17:52and it's like well you
17:55know I get it yeah but also I think
17:58people need escapism as well um so Greta
18:02is kind of
18:03bringing a bit more awareness without
18:06being as disruptive I suppose yeah I
18:10agree yeah no I AG yeah no I think she's
18:13doing wonderful work and and so I'm
18:16curious with what you're doing you're
18:18dealing with something heavy you're
18:19giving of yourself you didn't get into
18:20this line of work to make a lot of money
18:23and to do things right I mean you're
18:25you're you're out there trying to help
18:27people make an impact so I'm curious how
18:30do you what what gets you up every day
18:32what motivates you to do this work and
18:34also you have to evolve as a human being
18:36what is that Collective energy for you
18:37every day to do this work for me every
18:41day I'll be honest it's not always easy
18:43getting up in the mornings
18:46um but one of the things that has really
18:49kind of driven me since I started doing
18:51these talks is uh the feedback that I've
18:53been getting from the students so I
18:54Supply them with like a a questionnaire
18:58and and they answer the questions
19:00basically how do they feel coming into
19:02the workshop how do they feel after the
19:04workshop do they feel that their
19:06confidence levels in discussing periods
19:08has improved that kind of thing um and
19:10the
19:11statistics that I have um are kind of
19:15speaking for themselves which is great
19:18um so I've essentially spoken to about
19:21208 girls so far
19:24um and like 45% felt nervous or
19:28embarrassed coming in 33% were curious
19:31or excited 20% felt fine um and then
19:35after the
19:36workshop you know like 59% are feeling
19:40more confident slightly more confident
19:42and informed 62% F that their confident
19:45levels in discussing periods had
19:47increased um and 31% kind of felt the
19:50same as before
19:52so I'm seeing the and it's only a small
19:56amount of students but
19:59I'm
20:00seeing the numbers um so that's actually
20:03giv me a boost and then I get all these
20:06they can write their own feedback and
20:08comments at the end of the fors um
20:11they're not always pretty but the vast
20:12majority of them are really really nice
20:15um and yeah it just talking to them and
20:19hearing their stories and seeing them
20:22opening up as the talks
20:24progress um and it's only like an hour
20:27yeah um
20:29seeing the impact that it's having is is
20:32amazing yeah um yeah so it's
20:35definitely it's the only reason I get
20:37out of bed because let's be honest I'm
20:39not really making a lot of money from it
20:41but right I'm probably like the worst
20:43businesswoman in the world but that's
20:44not why I'm doing it and it would be
20:47lovely to make a career out of it a paid
20:49career out of it but um that's what I'm
20:53trying to do but obviously it'll be a
20:56while before I get there but certainly
20:58the feedback that's coming back from the
21:00talks that I'm doing um and from the
21:03teachers as well is definitely what's
21:07keeping me going on like the hardest
21:09days so so at the end of the day when
21:12you look at the Arc of what you've done
21:13in your career in your life up to this
21:15point what are you the proudest
21:17of um my kids of
21:22course um yeah you know they're seven
21:26and
21:27nine they're a lot more cluing than I
21:29was at that age um you know I definitely
21:33think the tide is changing um they're
21:36learning a lot more in school with
21:38regards to the environment and stuff
21:39like that and some of the stuff that
21:40they're coming out with I mean it's
21:42common sense and it's it makes me proud
21:45because I mean I know so many adults
21:50that even refuse to think that way do
21:52you know what I
21:53mean and it's pretty much just
21:56unlearning what we've been brought up up
21:58to believe um but there's a lot of
22:01people out there who just refuse to even
22:03take that into account or to refuse to
22:07unlearn what they grew up knowing
22:10um yeah so I I I it might sound like a
22:15bit of a cliche but my kids they do
22:17teach you a lot yeah for sure especially
22:21to be humble yeah they certainly do so
22:25at the end of the day is the face of
22:26this movement everyone has a perception
22:28of you family friends everyone that
22:31hears you speak everyone that gets
22:34involved with your mission but you run
22:36the show what's your perception of you
22:38who Do You Think You
22:40Are God that's another hard
22:44question
22:51I'm I don't know Irish people aren't
22:53very good at self-praise um I got yeah
22:59um
23:01I yeah I I think what I bring to the
23:04talks
23:05is
23:07um I'm not really one
23:10for big words I prefer Simplicity
23:14um and I think
23:17being um showing the some confidence in
23:21in that I know what I'm talking about
23:23but also like being
23:25approachable
23:27um is really important especially with
23:29the the students and the girls and
23:31getting them to open up and asking their
23:32questions
23:34so it is nice knowing that they can
23:38approach me after the the talk if they
23:41want their questions answered and that
23:42they can ask those questions and that
23:45they feel safe with me to ask those
23:46questions and confident um so yeah I
23:52think I think my openness and my ability
23:55to talk to them as grown-ups as well is
23:59uh definitely helps um and that would be
24:01one of my strengths it's supp
24:02Communication open
24:04communication yeah but I think that's
24:06the most important thing for everyone
24:08isn't it yeah yeah so if anyone wants to
24:11get involved you've done a wonderful job
24:13of kind of orchestrating a good overview
24:15if anyone out there wants to help get
24:17involved has questions Reach Out catch
24:20you live speaking how can they do that
24:23they can head to my website y.
24:29um I have a bit of information there I
24:32am working on getting a bit of corporate
24:36funding um and getting some local
24:38corporations to sponsor kits
24:41for students in Irish schools
24:45um yeah so they can reach me on the
24:48website or I'm on Instagram and Tik Tok
24:51set up a
24:52substack I'm looking to get away from
24:54meta AIT but honestly I how so I have
24:58Haven even looked at sub stack yet
25:01so cool I get it I totally get it yeah
25:04this is great I know how it works so
25:06don't follow on substack but uh conf
25:08find me on Tik
25:10Tok I will put links in the show notes
25:12to all of this Amy you did wonderful
25:13thank you so much for your message your
25:15story best of luck I appreciate it thank
25:18you so much

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Advocate Amy Orr – Breaking Period Stigma | Famous Interviews with Joe Dimino by Famous Interviews with Joe Dimino, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 3,885 words across 572 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.