A person’s period doesn’t give a damn whether she’s in the woods, if she has a house or if there’s a trashcan around to take care of the, erm, aftermath.

Cue Animosa, a local start-up company that is redefining menstrual product disposal by creating long-term, sanitary and odor-free period pouches.

Animosa founder Kate Blazar got the idea for on-the-go menstruation pouches after a 16-day trip at the Grand Canyon, where ravens relentlessly unzipped her backpack and scattered its contents. Yep, she was bleeding. “I had my do-it-yourself system that involves Ziplock bags,” she explains. “There were just clear bags laying around with bloody tampons in them.”

The raven incident caused Blazar to face her internalized shame surrounding menstruation. By June 2016, she got an MBA in innovation and entrepreneurship, left her position as head of business development at Arcimoto (she was previously executive director at enviro nonprofit Cascadia Wildlands) and pursued her dream of a period-positive (and woman-positive) company.

Jessica Southwick, Maggie Perzdock and Ally McClain joined Animosa in its blueprint stages, and together the four business-savvy women incorporated the company by July 2016.

 Animosa currently offers two bloody good products: a small and large multi-sectioned pouch made of highly durable water- and odor-proof material that can safely hold used products for days, as well as bioplastic baggies and hypoallergenic wipes.

The team will distribute 500 pouches to their backers if (and when) they reach their $10,000 Kickstarter goal. And Blazar hopes more products soon will be available online for the menstruating masses. 

 “Starting a company brings in every piece of your life and you really have to look at it closely and ask, ‘Am I crazy for doing this?’” Blazar says.

Within its first six months as a business, however, Animosa has already garnered international attention. 

 “We want to build on the idea that together we’re creating something that is bigger than just any one of us,” Blazar says. “And it’s through these connections that makes us all stronger.”

For more information, visit Animosa’s Facebook page or animosa.co.