By Thea Voutiristsas
The hackathon, dubbed “Hack the Flow” was organized by Lauren Towles as her thesis project for her masters degree at NYU. Her goal with “Hack the Flow” was to reduce the stigma around periods after seeing politicians talk about women’s bodies on TV without even understanding how they work, mostly referring to the incident back in February with Idaho state representative Vito Barbieri.
Towles told BuzzFeed News, “I felt like I could reach more people by doing something with a community feel. And when I researched about breaking stigmas, it’s more about raising awareness and having interactivity in a way of spreading a message.” The day was filled with more than hacking and coding. After a lunch break, the hackathon hosted a stand up set, a videogame called Tampon Run, then pizza for dinner.
After dinner, groups presented their projects, including FEMGUR, a sort-of Imgur for period-positive content; a half-day lesson plan on menstruation to be taught in NYC public schools; and