Dear Dame Margaret Beckett…

Here at The Hygiene Bank we believe in the power of young voices! Our Young Ambassadors play a vital role in advocacy, collecting donations, fundraising and much more. This month we’re meeting II year old Holly Leeder from Chellaston, Derby. Holly recently wrote to Labour MP Dame Margaret Beckett. Read her letter here.

Dear Margaret Beckett,
I am writing to you to let you about a charity I am Young Ambassador for called The Hygiene Bank.

Before I start explaining my reason why I am writing to you, I would like to tell you a bit about me. My name is Holly Leeder, I am eleven years old and I started my period in year 5 [2 years ago]. I have brown hair and brown eyes, also I am very tall [almost 5.6 feet].
One day I was reading a book called Girl Guide and it is aimed at teenagers that are going through puberty and it talked about Tampon Tax. Even though woman-kind have done well fighting for equality over the years, there is such thig as “ tampon tax”. Tampons and other sanitary products are classed by the government as “luxury items”. I could not believe it. We have to pay tax. As a woman you surely understand where I am coming from. I believe that women and girls should not have to pay for items that are considered essential. As a child I was disgusted.

I started to get passionate about the injustice of period poverty and the tampon tax and this led me to the wider issue of hygiene poverty. That in this country are people having to make a choice between eating or being clean because they can’t afford to do both. When I began researching, I realized women didn’t only pay tampon tax they paid more for many other products too including razors and deodorant and nappies.
The government need to take it all of this into consideration and think about these inequalities and how they may be having a big impact of those people that haven’t got much money to spend.

I want to be a good role model for those that are still growing into young women and I want to fight for my rights, other women and others that are vulnerable and can’t speak up. I Thank you for taking time into reading my letter.

Yours sincerely,Holly Leeder, a young girl that wants to make a difference.