How Aditi Gupta is helping girls understand puberty, and why they shouldn’t believe everything people say

New Delhi: Imagine going to a library where there’s a lot to learn, but limited time to search what you want. You meet a friend there, who knows the place better than you do. She gives you a book, you read it, believing it to be true. After you get home, you start seeing the world in a different way, sometimes subconsciously. 

For today’s smartphone-addicted kids, that library is social media, and that friend could be anyone you come across online, most of them with questionable intentions. Experts see social media as a dangerous addiction, warning parents to control their kids’ online activities before they can have serious repercussions.

During this vulnerable age, when anything and everything they need is available only a click away, kids, especially girls, may be exposed to inappropriate or wrong information which they generally believe to be true.

Aditi Gupta, a design graduate from a small town in Jharkhand, understood this quite well. She realised that young girls across rural areas have greater access to the internet than a toilet at their home or school. With a far greater chance of being exposed to disinformation, she, along with her colleague (now husband) Tuhin Paul, created a comic book designed to educate girls about menstruation, for their final year project.

Since then, Aditi has used her designing skills, insights from teachers and other experts  and technological support from friends to create Menstrupedia, a comic book series that dispels myths about menstruation and disinformation about puberty. 

This was an untapped market no one had ventured into before, and Aditi has managed to to reach about 50,000 girls across India and abroad. With more than 30k followers across social media, she aims to reach out to everyone who needs her help- parents, teachers and teenage girls wanting to know about their bodily changes.

Fast forward to 2025, she has won numerous accolades, from featuring in the Forbes 30 under 30 list to getting a Rs.50 lakh investment from Namita Thapar on Shark Tank.

She isn’t done yet. As a mom, entrepreneur and also a content creator, Aditi aims to reach an even bigger audience. “In the next five years we want to translate the comic in 15 languages other than Hindi and English. We want to design workshop kits for educators to conduct effective menstrual awareness workshops. The online illustrated guide on Menstrupedia would be made extensive to cover all aspects of menstruation and, finally, introduce the comic in at least one country other than India.” she explains.

<p>The post How Aditi Gupta is helping girls understand puberty, and why they shouldn’t believe everything people say first appeared on Hello Entrepreneurs.</p>