On an otherwise reasonable evening in July, more than 1,000 people packed an auditorium in Boulder, Colorado, for the culmination of the 2014 Unreasonable Institute. They came to watch 11 ventures present their solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges.
Here, in on of those talks, Unreasonable Institute fellow Rachel Starkey, CEO of Transformation Textiles, explains how her startup is using textile remnants to make low-cost underwear and menstrual pads to help keep girls in Sub-Saharan Africa in school. Access to these items can boost girls’ classroom attendance by 75 percent in some places.