TACKLING INEQUALITY :
One tampon at a time .
Meet the 24 year old who , in her spare time , saved women in the UK hundreds of pounds a year . Laura Coryton is a living proof that your ‘ I ’ m just one person , I can ’ t make a change ’ excuse just won ’ t cut it .
“ When I wrote the tampon tax campaign , I expected no more than 200 signatures . I was procrastinating and looking for anything to do that wasn ’ t my dissertation , and so I set up a page on Change . org . By the end of the first night , we ’ d reached 2000 signatures .” Anyone who ’ s ever had to write any kind of essay can relate to Laura ’ s procrastination , but how many of us can say we ’ ve used that time for anything productive ?
It was May 2014 that she first launched her campaign –“ Stop Taxing Periods . Period .”. A year later , it had gained enough traction to get on the radar of David Cameron , Prime Minsister at the time , and by January 2016 , the Treasury vowed to axe tampon tax . On her way back to the UK from a holiday in Thailand , whilst waiting for a
delayed flight connection in India , she received a call from the BBC inviting her for an interview on national television that evening . She
went “ straight from the airport to the studios , horrendously jet-lagged , without realising the magnitude of the situation ”.
From that moment onwards , the campaign went from strength to strength . By March 2016 , she made history when Parliament accepted a tampon-tax-ending amendment proposed by MP Paula Sherriff . Only slowing down when the Brexit referendum threw in some complications , the amendment is on track to be implemented by 2022 at the very latest .
As well as this huge achievement , Laura also has an impressive CV under her belt . She ’ s spent time campaigning with the Labour Party , has a Political Science bachelor ’ s degree from Goldsmiths University and is now studying for an MA in Women ’ s Studies at Oxford .
But the political career she gained overnight hasn ’ t always been plain sailing for Laura : “ There ’ s no crash course for giving live television
interviews on every news channel , or for answering tricky questions !” Whilst navigating this minefield she ’ s received undue backlash for things as out of her control as the infamous Nigel Farage deciding to back her campaign , and received “ some really weird things via email . From songs and poems to marriage proposals .” Also known as “ The Tampon Tax Girl ’ all across the UK , Coryton has been pushed to the forefront of British Politics
However , don ’ t let this put you off following in her footsteps . To anyone who is passionate about making any kind of change she urges : “ Oh my gosh just do it ! What are you waiting for ! Never in a million years did I think my campaign would be successful , and yet it was , so what ’ s stopping yours from being next ?”.
Support Laura ’ s next mission by following her ‘ End Period Poverty . Period .’ campaign at Change . Org .
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