Nadya Okamoto's August is More Than a Brand, It's a Conversation Around Periods

Her borderline personality disorder may be her greatest asset for a thriving company.

August

At the age of 27, most young adults are finally hitting their stride in their careers and climbing the corporate ladder. For Nadya Okamoto, she is already a published author with Period Power, is the CEO and founder of August – a lifestyle period brand and is the founder and former executive director of Period.org, which she started in 2014. If this isn’t enough, aside from her day job, she is a content creator amassing over 4 million followers on TikTok and produces and hosts the podcast Tigress.

Needless to say, this many hats and jobs sounds exhausting, and Okamoto doesn’t disagree honestly telling SI Swimsuit, “I’m tired!” Of course, lending to this was the not being able to take a weekend off when starting her foundation because if she wasn’t available to deliver sanitary products to those in need, they wouldn’t receive them, or how in 2019, frustrated by period stigmas and begging brands for period products, she decided to create her own. Launching a business while learning how to raise millions in equity and the innerworkings of the supply chain was no easy task. “It was like a crash course through the university of Google,” she jokes.

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Currently though she finds that the unknown is preventing her from having restful nights. “I don't think humans are meant to like uncertainty and so much about startups is uncertain,” she says as she also discusses the possible new tariffs and the new administration. The one thing the New Yorker does know is that she doesn’t want to end up in rehab like in 2020 when she went for extreme burnout and depression. “I just don't want to get to that point again,” she shares. “There are instances where I'm like can I do this for another 10 years. I do want a family, but then I imagine, doing this job and then on top of it having to take care of kids, and I'm just like that sounds insane.”

Her honesty is refreshing that she knows she can’t do it all. Luckily, she has an incredible team that helps and guides her along the way. The creator also admits that her recent diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) has been a strength in business. “It's literally having extreme imposter syndrome as my baseline,” she says. “Ten years into my career, I don't know if it has gone away, but I think it's become very normalized to me where I acknowledge that I have it. I think that actually makes me a really good company leader because I feel very insecure about what I bring to the table, so I'm very good at surrounding myself with partners, mentors, experts and hiring people who I think are smarter and more experienced than me.”

And she and her superstar team all have one common goal in mind, making period products accessible and sustainable. “When I started the nonprofit, in no way did I think it would ever be a job or that periods were going to be my career,” she states. “I think that everything in my life has been quite unplanned. I became very angry about the issue of periods and kind of followed that passion.”

August

From Period.org, it then inspired her to start August. However, with this, she didn’t need to ask permission or get approvals from others or government. Her wishes were granted by her. “We suddenly had the authority,” she notes. “I think that there was a lot more initiative in that sense. I really want August to push the entire industry to be better. We don't want to gatekeep and want to work alongside other brands in the space to do the same.”

Once again, Okamoto’s candor is prevalent and a big reason August has been so successful. “I hate paper straws,” she admits. “I'm all about being more sustainable, but if it doesn't work, and it's something that you need, I think purity of products and especially the efficacy is so important. The goal really was how do we create a product that even if someone didn’t care about sustainability, they would use our products because it was comfier, better and more leak proof.”

The power for August comes from the people buying its products. “Community has been the most rewarding,” she says. “I feel like it allows me to wake up every day and really feel the tangible difference that we're making through the brand, which keeps me going. We would not have started the brand if we didn't think that it could achieve some sort of social change component.”

August

August is forever evolving. The team is always listening to customers and starting the dialogue needed for change. They have spreadsheets that break down the comments and feedback. “I feel like I connect with people who are strangers and immediately start talking about periods and the pads they use and tampons,” the self-professed introvert, who would rather hang home with her dog, adds. “It’s this kind of like ripping a social anxiety band aid off. You immediately start talking about something and people have all these stories to share that they've never felt comfortable sharing.”

After Roe vs. Wade was overturned, a big concern from their clientele was about period tracking, so they launched a period tracking journal with a calendar. “We are not an app, and we're not going to do that, but that is the number one request we get because I think people see us as a trustworthy period entity,” she acknowledges. “I think that the environment, the politics of what we exist in has absolutely changed. Women are paying a lot more attention to their periods.”

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With her following on social media, and now finally being allowed to sell on TikTok, the conversation and product are reaching more people. “Period products weren't allowed on TikTok shop until [the end of 2024] because they were considered a prohibited item just like Juul, alcohol and vibrators,” she explains. “We're at a stage of business where we have some resources to be able to invest in sustainability updates and hopefully make new products, but I want to stay very focused on periods.”

The products won't change, they will only become better. Lastly, she wants women everywhere to know that “you can still swim on your period; you can use a tampon!”