Billion Girls CoLab by IDEO.org creates the space for girls to imagine a radically different future for themselves, then catalyzes a network of actors to bring it life. The initiative brings together unlikely collaborators and invites girls to drive the process of designing products and services that consider every facet of their lives.
MAKEATHON
Billion Girls Co-Lab launched in January 2020 and convened implementing partners, community-based organizations, corporates, donors, designers, and adolescents for a day-long makeathon in Nairobi to rapidly prototype 10 solutions with adolescent girls.
During this makeathon, I worked with a group of teenage girls and two leaders of community based organizations to create House of Nunu, a museum concept that introduces young women to the wonders of female anatomy. We got to this concept after spending over an hour chatting about our experiences of puberty and moments we feel most aware of our bodies. We also talked about the shame and guilt associated with our sexualities, which we felt needed to be replaced with joy and pride.
In reflecting on the day, we saw as a design team how engaging in play ultimately helped shift power dynamics between girls and adults. This lighthearted approach to making helped the whole group build empathy, explore taboo topics, and imagine a future without constraints.
I co-wrote and illustrated an article with Courtney Chang, who leads the Billion Girls CoLab, reflecting on the makeathon experience and exploring how play can rebalance power in design.
Here is a link to the detailed makeathon report.
DESIGN SPRINT
In February 2021, Billion Girls CoLab launched a 2-week remote design sprint with the first cohort of its fellows: 3 young women from various counties in Kenya who are receiving hands-on human centered design training at the CoLab. The sprint also invited 3 leaders of sexual reproductive health community organizations to collaborate with the team of fellows and designers from IDEO.org.
The objective was to design 2 prototypes that one of these organizations would choose from, adapt, and integrate into their activities, along with a $10,000 budget for testing and implementation. My collaborator and I worked on these prototypes in partnership with the fellows and the community organizations leaders, under the guidance of the Billion Girls CoLab fellowship team.
My collaborator developed the Sauti Na Vipepeo prototype, an online store where parents and teens can pick up items and build a conversation kit to help them have ‘the talk’ at home. The idea is that through a simple and light web interface, anyone can sign up and choose from a range of items to help them structure conversations about puberty. Items range from conversation prompts to sanitary and reproductive health products.
I worked on Grltime, a chatbot which makes facts about puberty more digestible. By delivering bit-sized, on-demand content straight into conversational platforms (SMS, Whatsapp, Telegram, etc.), the Grltime chatbot ensures that parents and teens are learning what they need to know about sexual reproductive health and puberty, at their own pace. Grltime also includes a monthly zine delivered to conversational apps that builds on the chatbot content by providing richer, more contextual content and tips.