The play is co-created by Tony Gabriel and Felipe Paiz, co-founder of Afirme, and the proceeds will be donated to causes for the LGBTQIA+ population.
Herself launched the first absorbent swim trunks for the transgender public.
The piece was conceived and developed by the startup and was co-created by Tony Gabriel, the trans person responsible for participating in the beginning of the project, and by Social Impact Entrepreneur Felipe Paiz, co-founder of the company AFIRME.
The idea for the product came about through research and exchange of information with trans men who menstruate, Herself concluded that most of them still do not take hormones and deal with menstruation every month.
Menstruation is still a sensitive topic in many realities and that includes trans and non-binary people. We seek to understand this pain through co-creation, which is a method that is in the DNA of the development of all our products. That’s how we realized that there was a way to offer a solution to allow use in the water. It was an opportunity to put our technology at the service of more people who menstruate, said Rassa Assmann Kist, CEO and co-founder of Herself.
In total, Brazil has 4 million transgender or non-binary people, according to a survey carried out by UNESP in 2020 and, in addition to all the psychological process and prejudice that this public suffers, this public still needs to deal with the issue of monthly menstruation, which often brings up triggers from the past.
For Tony Gabriel, a trans person who participated in the co-creation of the play, the trans public lacks health care and products that meet their needs.
Participating in the development of the swim trunks was a very welcoming and self-knowledge moment. I had many exchanges with Herself to expose our needs, because even those who go through the transition can still menstruate a lot or a little, depending on each treatment. I consider this partnership as a meeting of purpose. I was very honored to be able to collaborate with the creation of the play and bring innovations to the trans cause, said Gabriel.
For Felipe Paiz, co-founder of AFIRME, it is a moment of accomplishment for delivering a technological product that will guarantee comfort and quality of life for a portion of people who are so invisible and often forgotten.
We have always had trans people on the front lines of the LGBTQIAP+ struggle and it is the responsibility of all of us to think of solutions that facilitate, a little bit, the daily life of these people. emerging that trans people can occupy all places and when we launch a menstrual swim trunk on the market, to guarantee this right, added the entrepreneur.
The piece will be sold on the Afirme platform, as of September 16, for R$165. Proceeds from the pieces will be donated to causes for the LGBTQIA + population and, according to Herself, the product has a shelf life of at least three years, following care tips such as hand washing and neutral soap.
