Maanya Pandey

Founder, President and Iowa City Operations

Hi, my name is Maanya! I am a Sophomore at the University of Iowa majoring in Public Health on the Pre-Medicine track. I started Love For Red in May of 2020 when I was 15 years old after noticing an Instagram post about struggles women in prisons go through as a result of only having a limited quantity of menstrual products available to them and hearing stories of women in my life who have struggled due accessibility. I researched and found that this issue was a glimpse into a larger problem of period poverty. I also found that there were not many organizations that dealt with or brought awareness to the issue of period poverty in the Midwest, so I decided to take action!

The journey of growing from a one-person organization to a team of members has been so incredible and I am so excited to see the achievements Love For Red has as we grow and accomplish more!

Some fun facts about me are I play three instruments (the piano, flute, and guitar), I’m on the South-Asian Fusion dance team called Iowa Andhi at the University of Iowa, and I really like sushi!