This innovation inspired the first commercially successful period pads—Kotex Sanitary Napkins, which the Kimberly-Clark Corporation brought to market in 1918. In 1927, they hired psychologist Lilian Galbraith to research women’s needs for period products. Johnson & Johnson’s Modess brand introduced magazine coupons that could be pushed across the counter without asking for menstrual pads out loud. “There’s no good that can come from revealing you’re having your period,” Vostral says. Throughout the 1970s, a new wave of feminism allowed more open advertising and tweaks to period products, from pads with wings to mini and maxi products for different flows.