Sex Isn’t a Dirty Word is a full branding system for a sex ed program that equips teens with information to help them have safe and healthy relationships.
SexEd needs an education. That’s where Sex Isn’t a Dirty Word comes in. With comprehensive programs and resources that cover everything from birth control and STDs to mental health and toxic relationships, this project empowers teens during an incredibly vulnerable time in their life with the information and tools they need to be safe and protected. This gives them a safe place to learn valuable lessons about how to foster happy/healthy relationships with future partners, themselves, and their own bodies; how to set boundaries; and what’s going to be the safest option that works for them. No agenda pushing, no flowery language—just information.
Sex eduation in America is incomplete, misleading, and often agenda-pushing. The variety in what teens are being taught, who is teaching it, and when they’re being taught it can be often puts teens in situations that they aren’t safely prepared for. Comprehensive sex health starts with the relationship with yourself, then with your peers and your partner. Teens need to be equipped with the proper resources in order to be empowered to make healthy choices that are right for them.
I see a gap in the material and the way it’s being presented with the audience that it’s being taught to, so for this project I’m creating a website with resources and assets that speak directly to teens themselves. My goal is that it becomes a useful tool for accurate information, sparks healthy conversations, and maybe turns into a fully built out program taught in schools and organizations.
I feel so strongly about this topic for a wealth of reasons. Mostly, because I personally (along with the rest of teens) never got the sex health information that would’ve established a strong relationship with myself and empowered me. It’s an issue that bleeds into every single relationship—teen relationships, adult ones, friendships, the relationship with your body, etc. Women, and minority women especially, unfairly bear the weight of the misinformation or lack of resources more greatly.
I want my designs to have more of an impact than just being “pretty.” I feel like often when designing for myself or clients the goal, while valid, is often shallow. I’m excited to showcase more depth and push myself to do more projects like this that can have a greater impact. If this project can educate even just one person on safe sex, I will consider it a success.
I reached out to contacts that work with teens to help me organize my topics so that teens would get the relevant information at the right grade level. They also provided unique perspectives on interracial/intercultural relationships, sex ed taught through a strict Latinx community lens, private and public school sex educations, and LGBTQ+ teenage community needs.
For the resource articles, I pulled from a range of educational sources that are experts in their fields—sex health, mental health, relationships. They are cited on my citations page. I originally started this project in another class and was inspired to turn it into my capstone project. I got feedback on the design elements of my project from my professors and classmates during our weekly meetings in both my Experimental Interaction and Capstone classes.
For future feedback and research, I'd use my Sex Education and Mental Health Survey document to survey teens on the first day of the program. This would allow the program to grow and adapt organically to the actual needs of the students. I'd also grow the program into including professionals like OB-GYNs / primary care doctors / urologists / child psychologists / therapists / relationship coaches / LGBTQ+ youth specialists / people specialized in working with sexual assault and sex trafficking survivors / etc. either as speakers or for their expertise on drawing up the lesson plans with accurate information. My goal is to have a diverse range of voices involved, so that they are getting every perspective available.
