Fifth grader Hannah Bryant’s resiliency, developed after a tragedy, led her to designing a business that is helping other girls as they grow into womanhood.
Hannah, 10, has organized EHN Creativity, a kids-run business selling period kits for young girls who will be starting their menstrual cycle, and a girls spa kit that includes Scrunchies, nail polish, emery board, etc.
The period kit comes in a pink box with beautiful flowers on the cover. Inside a young girl will find pads, tampons, panty liners, deodorant spray, wipes, candy, a pouch, a journal and an encouraging note. “Anything you need for a first period,” Hannah explains.
She said she included a journal because “sometimes when you want to express your feelings, when you’ve had a bad day at school, but your parents are still at work. Instead of calling (them) just write in your journal your feelings and how you might be able to solve that problem rather than having that distress or bad feelings in yourself.”
The period kits are $25 and available online at ehncreativity.com. Hannah also has sold them at local events, including the H-F Vikings Showcase, H-F Juneteenth Celebration, and other events.
In 2020, Hannah, the daughter of Nordia and Demiah Bryant of Homewood, was grieving for her grandfather and an auntie who had died. Her grieving was impacting her daily routine.
“I would just be in my bed crying and not tell anyone my true feelings,” she said. “Then my mom put me in MEAN Girls to express myself,” she said. “And now, how I’m talking to you today, if I wasn’t in that group, I probably wouldn’t even have this business today.”
Nordia Bryant said she found the organization on social media and hoped that it would give Hannah the space she needed to personally express her sorrow and come to terms with the family’s losses.
MEAN stands for Motivate, Empower, Affirm and Nurture. MEAN Girls Empowerment is designed as a safe space for girls to avoid negativity. It works to empower young girls to live a positive healthy lifestyle and achieve personal goals.
“It’s a phenomenal program,” Nordia Bryant said. “She found an outlet to express herself. It’s really made a major impact on Hannah on bringing her back to herself.”
Once Hannah became the outgoing girl that people knew her to be, she decided to do something for others. In February 2022, she organized EHN Creativity.
“I came up with the idea for period kits because many girls in my school (Churchill School in Homewood), in fourth grade, they started getting their periods, and I just wanted to celebrate our transition into womanhood and also to make people feel comfortable in this environment today,” Hannah said. “People are feeling more empowered and comfortable in their own skin and realize that other people are with them. They don’t need to feel like they’re not special or they’re ashamed.”
Hannah’s successes won her an Impact Award from MEAN Girls Empowerment. It celebrates Hannah’s business and “how I’ve grown from being silent almost every single day during COVID ‘til now I share my feelings and have a business and being social, just talking and having a great personality,” she said.
For 2023, Hannah hopes to encourage schools to have the period kits available for girls and “to organize assemblies for girls on what’s going to happen during the transition into womanhood and understand it.”