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Laura Coryton is a feminist leader. She is the leader of the 'Stop Taxing Periods' campaign. She started the global campaign when she was a student. She won a major victory with the campaign when Parliament accepted a tampon-tax amendment in March 2016 proposed by the MP Paula Sherriff. This tax was seen to be sexist and so her campaign was seen to have huge impact on feminist issues and equality.

Laura told the Independent how pleased she was she got Mr Osborne to say the word “tampon.” Laura was able to force the idea out into the open through articles in a wide range of publications.

Laura Coryton was 2016 New Radical winner and the Independent's top world change maker of 2015.

Education
Laura graduated in international relations from Goldsmith, University of London. Laura began her campaign while still studying and used an online petition as the basis for her campaign.

In a Goldsmith's University interview Laura stated "It has inspired me to think big and to view this issue for what it is; a global issue disadvantaging millions of people around the world and trivialising the marginalisation of issues traditionally associated with women. Most importantly, studying here has made me realise that anything is possible, despite various EU-related legislative hoops!.”

Campaign 'Stop Taxing Periods'
Laura Coryton was a student in May 2014 when she launched the change.org campaign ‘Stop Taxing Periods’ to abolish the controversial tampon tax. The online petition gained more than 320,000 signatures. The campaign also involved protests, demonstrations and viral social media. A major victory was won in March 2016 when chancellor George Osborne pledged in his budget to exempt menstrual products from sales tax. This pledge hinged on forcing a change in EU law allowing member states to scrap VAT on tampons, another hurdle to overcome. In the meantime, the £15m raised would be given to women’s charities.

Despite stating the petition was her first point of call, the campaign has been taken to the streets as well as the world wide web. In addition, Laura managed to dramatically lower the price of sanitary products across tens of universities around the UK.

Laura maintains she is a fan of the online petition, and said: “I think they work well to mobilise people wherever they may be in the world and to centralise a campaign.” She added that the issue has remained for generations and the effect of her online petition is that it has finally caught such wide attention because of the traction it has gained and the sheer numbers behind it.

“It sends out a damaging message to society and says women aren’t important, and that’s a really dangerous message to send,” Coryton tells me. “On principle it’s a really damaging tax that really has no relevance in the 21st century.

“I think it’s important to overturn mainly because of the original reason the tax was placed - which was because a really male dominated parliament thought sanitary products weren’t essential.”

Two years on, Laura is campaigning to get Osborne’s pledge pushed through. In May 2016 a demonstration was held outside Parliament to put pressure on the government to take the final step of abolishing the tax for good.

Laura is a graduate in International Relations from Goldsmiths’ University and now works for the Labour Party.

Laura is also an ambassador for the Eve Appeal charity.

Laura has started a new campaign supporting homeless women with sanitary products.