Lil-Lets South Africa has dropped the first intergenerational social media talk show about menstruation for South African’s. The show is directed by award-winning documentary filmmaker, Aliki Saragas and co-produced by reality TV and radio star Dineo Ranaka.
“Lil-Lets Talk” is a free, crowd-based platform where you can ask any question about periods at any life stage in a safe space. The platform is run by peer responders and a panel of experts, including a gynaecologist, pelvic floor specialist, clinical psychologist, and postpartum doula.
Peer responders on Lil-Lets Talk are vetted and incentivised with a points system that rewards them with Lil-Lets products for themselves or their communities when they submit quality answers and insights on the platform to help other users.
“We built Lil-Lets Talk to facilitate honest conversations that empower users to better understand their bodies. This way, they can choose what works for them while leveraging the shared human experience when it comes to navigating first periods, PMS, and the physical and emotional changes during and after pregnancy and menopause. For every question asked and answer posted on Lil-Lets Talk, Lil-Lets donates a pack of Maxi Pads to those in need via quarterly donations to beneficiaries nominated by the community,” said Keryn Brien, Marketing Manager of Lil-Lets.
“I was immediately attracted to the project based on its purpose of destigmatising multi-generational menstruation myths and taboos. The content is resonating with our South African audience, as we’ve already attracted more than 100,000 views of the first episode – across social media – of #LilLetsTalkwithDineo within the first 24 hours of flighting,” added Ranaka.
In the first episode, Ranaka is joined by her mother, Siba Ranaka, grandmother Lilian Maphohoshe, and her 13-year-old niece, Naledi Ranaka. The second episode will drop in April and focuses on the realities of becoming a mother and the ‘Fourth Trimester. Brien noted that they were impressed by the successful pilot of Lil-Lets Talk in 2020. In the first three months, the show had more than 3,000 member sign-ups,308,000 campaign interactions and 3.6m impressions.
“We are in the process of developing a Lil-Lets Talk short course and certification for people wanting to empower themselves (as peers, parents or teachers) for the greater good of their communities, schools, and leadership obligations. We know there’s still a long way to go in terms of improving menstrual health education and access in South Africa but we are committed to period empowerment and are focused on enabling our audience to make more informed choices in order to find the product that works for them,” concluded Brien.
