Yizhen Shi

Founder,
Pink Tax(ac)tion

Yizhen Shi, a 19-year-old student from China, is the Founder of Pink Tax(ac)tion. Currently studying in Singapore, she is interested in history from various cultures, behavioral economics, and international relations. She likes to spend her time on creative writing, community services and watching documentaries.

At the age of 15, she received a School-based Scholarship presented by the Ministry of Education in Singapore allowing her to pursue her high school education there. Living overseas without her parents’ guidance, she learnt to manage her own finances and take care of herself on a daily basis at this young agestrategize the usage of allowance for groceries, daily commute, and other necessities for daily living. This experience made her realize the importance of financial literacy and the ability to be financially independent. 

As she started to develop an interest in learning more about the markets for female products, she discovered the issue of price discrimination against women, and some research confirmed her observation - this was the so-called “pink tax”, defined as the tendency for brands to charge higher prices on goods for women than on comparable products for menmost typically the pink tax, was rather ubiquitous. In the meantime, she noticed that many of her friends at her age did not have healthy shopping patterns. Imperfect information when making purchases, impulse buying and other unfavorable shopping habits were common among her friends. 

In order to eliminate the price discrimination against women in most markets and make teenage girls at her age to be more financially informed, Yizhen founded Pink Tax(ac)tion in 2022.

Pink Tax(ac)tion publicizes articles, upload videos of street experiments and field investigation to promote people’s awareness of the pink tax. For consumers to be better informed about the nature of products (whether the products are pink tax free), we designed a trademark “PINKLESS” for more pink-tax-free products to stand out. We also publicize educational blogs to discuss how teenage girls can develop better shopping habits. We hope our efforts will bring a greater awareness of this issue to the broader public and even government officials, who have the power to make change.

Currently, Pink Tax(ac)tion is active in Singapore and China. We hope that in the future, we can collaborate with people around the world to work towards the with a shared goal of eliminating the discriminatory pink tax in order to promote fairness in the marketplace, foster healthier shopping habits in young women and ultimately contribute to the financial independence of women worldwide.from different countries and regions to expand our influence around the world.