Applications for teens ages 14-18 to enroll in our digital, semester-long program open on July 1st, 2025! Forward this email to the teens in your life.

Ever wondered why The Youth Sexpert Program takes a peer to peer approach?

Our founder Tara Michaela says ”Like many young adults, I can list several events in my life that could have been prevented had someone just been willing to be honest with me about sex: Discovering pornography at age 10 but never telling anyone besides my closest friend, who was also 10. Being publicly shamed in my high school for giving a blowjob to some guy I thought genuinely cared about me. Experiencing sexual violence again and again, and feeling isolated and helpless to do anything about it. I'm sure you have your own list. Maybe you didn't experience your first orgasm until adulthood, or have carried shame from instances where you weren't able to maintain an erection. Yet even though so many of us carry traumatic memories of things that could have been prevented, we still often fail to view today's youth through the lens of our own past, or offer them the kind of information and understanding we wish wed had.

We took on the challenge of designing a curriculum for a radically new type sex education that would do exactly that, asking ourselves the crucial question, ‘What would we have wanted to know at that age?’

Unfortunately, expecting the existing educational systems in place to think outside of the box and incorporate this level of honesty into sex-ed curriculums feels like a pipe dream, or something only possible in a far-off future. I'm sure you have heard statistics about the abysmal state of sex education today. Progress in education reform is slow, and can feel like we take two steps back for every step forward. Right now, it is a struggle to get education policy passed that even allows students to 'say gay.’ Even if state and local education systems do get on board, there is still the huge task of preparing teachers with vastly different levels of proficiency on the topic of sexual health and wellness.

Meanwhile, students need this education now. Teenagers lucky enough to get any level of formal sex education are most likely getting it after they have already become sexually active. By then, they are already being exposed to the kinds of situations I listed as having led me to this work. This is where the peer-to peer model comes in. Instead of putting more on the shoulders of educators, who are often overworked and underpaid, we can lean on systems of community support that already exist among young people. Young folks already often go to one another when they feel they can't talk to teachers and parents - we know this in large part because so many of us did this ourselves.”

IN RECENT NEWS

• We hosted a Matching Fundraising Campaign, sponsored by Afterglow, for our In The Know Initiatives. In addition to digital programming, were fundraising to host in-person workshops that condense our 10-week curriculum into 2–3 days of engaging sessions covering topics like anatomy, consent, and queerness. To make the greatest impact, we’ve chosen Texas and Georgia as the first locations for this initiative. You can still donate here!

• Keep an eye out for information on an upcoming webinar for parents and educators! Watch last year’s here.

For updates:

Warm regards,
Team at YSP