Press_Release_Teena_Launch.pdf
Teena is here to get Gen Z #periodready
For many teens, the first period experience and puberty is the start of plummeting self-esteem and confidence. While we alone can’t change the world young people live in, we believe we can positively shift the paradigm from the inside out.
A first-of-its-kind period tracker and app combination, designed with teens in mind, Teena is here to get Gen Z #periodready. The youngest of this rising generation are just starting their menstrual cycles, with older members getting to grips with their puberty years.
#PeriodTok has shown us that young people are already open to talking about periods in a way that is real and honest. They are curious about and engaged with their cycles. The next step? Science-backed education and a positive, uplifting take on the menstrual cycle experience.
Teena offers an alternative to the inaccurate guesswork of free period tracker apps, using the accurate science-backed cycle sign of basal body temperature to tell teens when to expect their next period. No more surprises or leaks and the unfortunately built-in shame or embarrassment.
The companion app supports teens in tracking their newly hormotional state - that’s their shifting moods and emotions, all with a positive spin (no PMS here; those are your “Fierce” days). Plus teens can keep on top of their signs and symptoms - from cervical fluid changes to the arrival of period poops!
An in-app Magazine provides accessible, age-appropriate articles on everything they can track, monitor, and learn using the tracker and app (examples: Amazing Facts About Menstrual Blood; Why Do Cramps Happen?; At Your Cervix: An Illustrated Guide To Your Cervix). Plus, an animated, interactive Cycle Journey ensures teens learn the why of the menstrual cycle as well as the when.
Teena is kickstarting a #periodready movement. What does #periodready mean? Knowing (almost exactly!) when your next period will arrive and:
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Age-appropriate, fun and friendly, shame-free education on hormones, health, and teen’s changing body.
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A holistic, positive, wellness-focused and wellness-supportive perspective on why we have menstrual cycles.
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A sense of in-control confidence when it comes to prepping for that first and future periods from practical matters (tampons or pads?) to the science of cycles.
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A cycle experience that lifts you, boosts self-esteem, and makes you feel as special as you truly are!
What makes Teena different?
Aside from the accuracy of using basal body temperature to track periods instead of simply period dates, Teena is unique in its wellness-supportive focus. Tracking with Teena is about menstrual cycle awareness and body literacy.
That means our design, content, and vision is founded in the ACOG clinical guidance of the menstrual cycle as a fifth vital sign for teens.
During our research we discovered much of the education available for teens on the menstrual cycle is built around the expectation of pregnancy. The lesson is: you have a menstrual cycle so you can get pregnant one day.
We decided to present an inclusive alternative that accepts and acknowledges that many members of Gen Z express a desire to not have children in the future, but have a keen interest in their health and well-being, including mental health and cycle health.
Our lesson? You have a menstrual cycle to feel good, be strong, and to become you!
As a tween or teen, tracking your cycle is about engaging with and having a relationship with your changing body that sets the foundation for self-esteem, confidence, and lifelong health and wellness.
Your menstrual cycle is about so much more than whether or not you choose to have children and focusing on fertility can feel reductionist, excluding, and often unrelatable to those just beginning to get periods.
The Teena app can be used in free-mode or alongside the Teena tracker. Access to our educational magazine and Cycle Journey are accessible to all interested in learning more about their body.
What is basal body temperature?
Basal body temperature (BBT) is measured in the morning after waking up. It’s also called waking temperature. At night, the body temperature drops to its lowest value; during the day, it rises slowly and reaches its maximum in the afternoon. With BBT, Teena can calculate if and when you have ovulated. And, after ovulation, follows menstruation. Your BBT is lower during your follicular phase (that’s the first phase of your menstrual cycle). It then goes up a little after you ovulate. Your BBT stays up during your luteal phase (that’s the second phase of your menstrual cycle) until right before your next period arrives.
Using basal body temperature and our algorithmic method Teena tells the teen when to expect their next period.
Founder Natalie Rechberg-Egly on her first period experience and how this shaped her desire to create Teena:
“I was not prepared at all for my first period and had no idea what to expect. I was embarrassed and ashamed to smuggle a tampon out of the bathroom, which I then used all wrong. I would have liked a more open approach to periods back then and for someone to take me by the hand. This work and creating Teena is driven by my own conviction that having a positive experience to start menstruation will positively influence the rest of teen’s lives. Evolving the science behind my family’s forty years expertise in this field, I was frustrated and impatient at the time gap often experienced between starting menstruation and connecting with the body. With so much pressure and anxiety impacting young peoples’ lives today, I wanted to develop something that could be useful, with genuine impact that spoke to their unmet needs. Teena is the product of medical knowledge, passion and science poured into a device. Experimental innovation in service to transform the fears and anxieties of teens into a space of power, ease and freedom. Providing certainty and control in one area of life, at a time when there can be much uncertainty and confusion.”
Awards
Teena wins the Red Dot Award for "Brand & Communication Design"
Teena wins "Master of Swiss Apps" 2022 and 3 x gold in the categories (Design, Innovation and Functionality).
Retail Information
MSRP incl. VAT and Shipping:
Launch special: $99 (incl. free app Teena)
one-time purchase for Teena Device
Battery:
7 years / 2 years warranty for the Teena Device
Data Privacy:
All of the data is safe with us. To use the app teens do not need to provide any personal information, such as name or email address.
About Valley
The Valley Group of Companies is a technology pioneer in the international market for Fem Health products that offer empowered body and cycle awareness. We are shaping a period ready generation where the guesswork is over. Fun, bioscience, fizz, and heart all mixed in to build a device and app that’s yours. We’re building life foundations through a positive puberty experience and championing body literacy. Leaders in creating the ‘Period Ready’ movement.
