Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
SPECIAL PRICE: Just £9.99 for the next 8 weeks
Subscribe today
Social Justice

Michael Sheen launches new Hey Girls period poverty campaign for dads

The Welsh actor teamed up with the Big Issue Invest-backed social enterprise to break the stigma of period with #Pads4Dads

Michael Sheen has teamed up with Big Issue Invest-backed period poverty-busting social enterprise to break the stigma around the issue for dads.

The Welsh actor, who is a huge advocate for social enterprises, launched the #Pads4Dads campaign to encourage fathers and daughters to talk about periods in an online video yesterday.

Socially-conscious success story Hey Girls have created a resource on their website to help dads with the great unknowns of the issue after carrying out research to find that four out of 10 dads never learned about periods.

The handy tips include when to ‘have the chat’ to kids of all genders about periods and how to prepare as well as negotiating the minefield of buying the right products.

Hey Girls has even gone a step further with the latter, offering an all-in-one Pads4Dads kit on their website, available for £12.95, including a handy leaflet guide.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

“It’s awkward for dads to have this chat because chances are, they didn’t learn about periods in school,” said Sheen in the launch video.

“Believe me, we want to be supportive, but there’s almost no information out there aimed at dads. Let’s not leave dads out of the bloody conversation!”

Hey Girls’ rise has been remarkable since the social enterprise was founded by Celia Hodson and daughters Becky and Kate at the start of 2018.

Shop Hey Girls at The Big Issue Shop now

Their products are now available in Waitrose and Asda stores while their mission of activism and education has been boosted by a £50,000 investment and mentorship from Big Issue Invest’s Power Up Scotland.

The enterprise is also a key partner in the Scottish government’s period poverty roll-out with free sanitary products to be made available to an estimated 18,800 Scottish women through foodbanks, women’s shelters and community centres.

Image: Hey Girls

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

READER-SUPPORTED SINCE 1991

Reader-supported journalism that doesn’t just report problems, it helps solve them.

Recommended for you

View all
Everyone thinks pensioners are rich. But I'm forced to choose between heating and eating
pensioner
Pensioner poverty

Everyone thinks pensioners are rich. But I'm forced to choose between heating and eating

Single people must earn at least £30,500 per year to live well in the UK
woman in supermarket
Living standards

Single people must earn at least £30,500 per year to live well in the UK

Revealed: Millions of disabled people went to a food bank last year as Labour plotted benefit cuts
A Trussell food bank worker sorting food parcels. Image: Dan Prince
Food banks

Revealed: Millions of disabled people went to a food bank last year as Labour plotted benefit cuts

Scotland faces growing nitazenes threat as it grapples with drugs deaths crisis
a syringe and pills of drugs
Drugs

Scotland faces growing nitazenes threat as it grapples with drugs deaths crisis

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payments: Where to get help in 2025 now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payments: Where to get help in 2025 now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue

Reader-supported journalism that doesn’t just report problems, it helps solve them.

Every day, Big Issue digs deeper – speaking up for those society overlooks. Will you help us keep doing this work?