Procter & Gamble’s Always period care brand whose purpose is to build girls’ confidence, and Thrive Global, a leading behavior change technology company founded by Arianna Huffington, announced the launch of the Always You app, a period tracker and wellness app that helps #EndPeriodPoverty. This free mobile app is designed to help users track their cycle in less than 30 seconds and improve their holistic well-being.

In a first-of-its-kind feature, the Always You period tracker lets users improve the lives of others in a tangible way while investing in their own well-being in partnership with Thrive Global. Nearly one in five girls in the U.S. have missed school due to lack of period products, according to a 2019 Always Confidence and Puberty Study. Science also shows that giving back can be a powerful form of self-care, and has been connected to lower rates of depression and higher self-reported levels of happiness and well-being. The Always You period tracker will enable more users to give back daily, helping build a country where no girl has to miss out on school because she doesn’t have access to period protection. By simply registering and engaging with the app, users can spark donations of period products to help #EndPeriodPoverty through partners like Feeding America.

“Always has been working to help build girls’ confidence for more than 35 years, and we are always looking for ways to do more. Our consumers have been using our online period tracker in our Always website for years, and we are now making it more accessible with our new Always You Mobile App. And like everything we do at Always, we saw an opportunity to continue our social impact by turning this into another way for consumers to contribute to help #EndPeriodPoverty,” says Laura Magon, senior director of Procter & Gamble for Global Fem Care Innovations – maker of Always. “The pandemic has also spotlighted how women are disproportionally impacted by mental health and wellness concerns. We are thrilled to partner with Thrive Global as we developed more than just a period tracker. Together, we created a wellness platform that provides exclusive Thrive Microsteps to help our consumers improve their overall well-being.”

More than ever, people are engaging in conversations about their period and intimate health concerns, with over 11 million monthly online searches related to intimate wellness questions. This past year has been especially difficult for women, as 80% reported feeling that the Covid-19 pandemic has had a bigger negative impact on their stress than any other event in their lives, according to a Thrive Sciences nationally representative survey of more than 10,000 U.S. adults. In a study conducted by CARE, a non-profit international aid organization, researchers found that while almost nobody is spared from the anxiety, worry and overall emotional fatigue of the pandemic, women are almost three times as likely to report suffering from significant mental health consequences including anxiety and inability to sleep. The Always You period tracker responds to these needs by bringing personalized, science-backed articles, videos and activities to women in every life stage to improve their intimate wellness and holistic health. This will help them understand how their physical, mental and emotional health work together — in addition to having a simple period tracker on the go.

To help users form lasting healthy habits, the Always You period tracker also leverages Thrive Global’s behavior change expertise to bring users exclusive Thrive Microsteps — small, science-backed actions you can start taking immediately to build habits that significantly improve your life. Users can implement and track their chosen Microsteps daily to reduce stress and boost physical and emotional well-being.

“At Thrive, we’re passionate about creating technology that has an impact on people’s lives, and Always You is a perfect example,” says Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global. “We’re not just giving people a period tracker. We’re supporting them and celebrating them with our whole human approach to well-being, and providing too-small-to-fail Microsteps they can take immediately to improve their wellness and build confidence. And we’re especially excited to be doing it to help #EndPeriodPoverty, because giving is one of the most effective and proven ways to boost our well-being, transforming the giver as much as the recipient.”

The Always You period tracker was created in collaboration with notable women in the well-being space including writer, poet, and mental health advocate Aija Mayrock, OB-GYN Dr. Kameelah Phillips, TV host, author, and bridal expert Lori Allen, psychologist Dr. Lauren Hazzouri and her 18-year-old daughter, education equality activist Ava Hazzouri, and medical student and health influencer Brooklynne Palmer.