NPR · 3 hours ago

'Diana' Honorees Include Teen Guy Who's a Menstrual Activist

When a close friend spent months suffering from undiagnosed menstrual pain - her parents assuming she was faking it to avoid exams - a 14-year-old boy in Delhi couldn't let it go. Aadvik Jain, now 18 and a Diana Award honoree, went on to found Team Period, an initiative using workshops, flash mobs, and dance performances to dismantle the silence surrounding menstruation in India. What distinguishes his approach is its humility: "We never approached the issue as experts," he says. "We approached it as learners." That quality - a young man choosing curiosity over authority, and empathy over expertise - may explain the story that stays with him most: a disruptive 12-year-old boy who once couldn't see why any of this concerned him, and who later guided his terrified younger sister through her first period, heating pad and chocolates included, because someone had thought to teach him. Jain's work is a reminder that stigma doesn't only harm those it targets - it leaves everyone around them unprepared to help.