Miki Agrawal's Panty Raid

Self-styled tech broad Miki Agrawal wants to disrupt the tampon industry, turn periods into a cause, and make a lot of money in underwear.

- Noreen Malone

The New York City subway is not an especially prudish place.

In addition to the unflappable readers of romance novels, there are the advertisements, which specialize in double entendre. A mattress company entices riders by promising a comfortable place to “go too far.” A plastic surgeon’s office illustrates breast enhancement with clementines transformed into grapefruits. But last fall, when a young company called Thinx that makes “period underwear”— constructed of special fabric to ensure menstrual blood doesn’t leak or stain—submitted a proposal for ads that employed grapefruit halves (and runny eggs) in an if–Georgia O’Keeffe–painted–food kind of way, the media company that evaluates ads for the MTA balked. You may have heard about this, because it was big news on the internet: “Will the New York City Subway Ban These Ads for Using the Word ‘Period’?” asked Mic in a post that was shared with righteous anger on Facebook and Twitter (“Yes @mta, let’s not suggest that women get periods”; “DEAR NY SUBWAY, THERE WILL BE BLOOD”). The MTA told the Times that this wasn’t at all the case, that the ads were still in the review process, and that “of course” they would run. (“We were hoping to work with the advertiser to refine the copy,” said a spokesperson.) But the ins and outs of the bureaucratic-approval process were really beside the point, because Thinx had experienced what its CEO, Miki Agrawal, said was the third of its five viral moments to date—and in the process had increased its revenue by a factor of 23.