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Meet Scarleteen: Sex Ed For The Real World

Meet Scarleteen: Sex Ed For The Real World

Released Friday, 1st December 2023
Good episode? Give it some love!
Meet Scarleteen: Sex Ed For The Real World

Meet Scarleteen: Sex Ed For The Real World

Meet Scarleteen: Sex Ed For The Real World

Meet Scarleteen: Sex Ed For The Real World

Friday, 1st December 2023
Good episode? Give it some love!
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Episode Transcript

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0:00

Welcome to Speaking of Sex

0:02

with the Pleasure Mechanics. I'm

0:05

Chris from pleasuremechanics.com. And

0:07

on this podcast, we

0:10

have honest, explicit, wholesome

0:12

conversations about sex

0:14

and pleasure, and the joy

0:16

of connection. Come on

0:19

over to pleasuremechanics.com where you will

0:21

find all of the resources we

0:23

have been lovingly generating for you

0:25

since 2006. On today's

0:28

episode, we are celebrating

0:30

with our

0:34

friends at scarlatine.com.

0:37

Scarlatine is one of those resources

0:40

I refer folks to every

0:42

week, sometimes it feels like every

0:44

day. Because Scarlatine for the

0:46

past 25 years has been one

0:50

of the internet's best resources

0:53

for nonjudgmental, comprehensive

0:56

education, information, and

0:58

community about sexual

1:01

health, sexuality and

1:03

erotic becoming. Scarlatine

1:05

is for the teen in all of

1:07

us. Yes, they center

1:10

the voices of teens and

1:12

young people and answer the

1:14

questions of teens and young

1:16

people, which for the past,

1:18

you know, generations, we

1:20

have been underserved when it

1:23

comes to our questions around

1:25

sexuality and sexual health. We

1:28

are really left to our

1:30

own devices to keep ourselves

1:32

safe and navigate the very

1:34

vulnerable terrain of sexual

1:37

development and our first

1:39

relationships, and the implications

1:42

of our choices. And

1:44

I want us all to listen to

1:46

this interview, thinking about

1:49

the teen in ourselves thinking about

1:51

our first education

1:53

when it comes to sexuality. Where

1:57

did we learn from? Who did we learn

1:59

from? What questions? We're left unanswered.

2:01

And who did we turn to when. We

2:03

heard big questions to navigate for

2:06

the past twenty five years. Scarlett

2:08

teen. Dot Com has been that

2:10

resource that people can turn to

2:13

the not only get their questions,

2:15

answers, that to feel a sense

2:17

of acceptance and belonging. It is

2:19

so important that we come together

2:22

as a community to support. Resources

2:24

like Scarlett In. Com

2:27

so they can continue. To

2:29

support the teams are merging

2:31

today and such treacherous terrain.

2:34

And continue to support. Parents

2:36

and caregivers. As we support

2:38

the young people in our allies do

2:40

it for the teen a new he

2:43

will find resources. In the show notes

2:45

about how to hooked up directly. With

2:47

Scarlatti in and join us

2:49

in supporting them for now,

2:51

please welcome codirector of Scarlett

2:54

in.com Sam Walls to the

2:56

show. Sam. Thank you

2:58

so much for joining us to

3:00

celebrate twenty five years of Scarlatti

3:02

in.com Leaders Get us started by

3:04

introducing yourself the and then what

3:06

is Carla team and how did

3:08

it start and where we are

3:10

today? Twenty five years later. I'm

3:14

yes, so. My. Name is

3:16

Sam while. I. Am

3:18

one of the. Directors at

3:21

Scarlet seen.com. And.

3:24

Scarlett. Team is a.

3:27

Primarily online. Sex.

3:30

And Relationships Education resource for

3:32

teenagers and emerging adults and

3:35

we provide a lot of

3:37

written conscience such as like

3:40

articles and advice columns. On

3:43

A and displayed. Huge

3:45

array of. Topics.

3:48

And we also have spaces

3:50

were young people can com.

3:53

And ask questions and get

3:56

information and advice and support.

3:59

From. Our staff

4:01

and volunteers around issues

4:03

related to sex, relationships,

4:06

identity bodies, All sorts of

4:08

things. And Scarlett seen it.

4:11

As. A resource has always

4:13

been very grass roots

4:15

and very clear. It.

4:18

First. Emerged when Heather,

4:20

who is. One.

4:22

Of the other code directors and also our.

4:25

Founder. Was running

4:27

a. Website called

4:29

the Scarlet Letters which was.

4:33

The. Sex. Education and Advice. For.

4:35

Adults. And. They

4:37

kept getting questions.

4:39

From young people. Who.

4:41

Were looking for the kind of advice

4:44

they were providing because they weren't finding

4:46

it anywhere else. And so

4:48

it. That. Kind of

4:50

inspired Heather to start.

4:52

Scarlett seen. Ah, and

4:55

then over the years. You.

4:57

Know we britain more and more. And

4:59

we've added on these different services

5:01

where people can get help. Our.

5:04

Team. Of People in Volunteers

5:06

and staff has grown. And.

5:09

That really brings us to

5:11

now. I'm were were

5:14

hitting this. Twenty. Five year

5:16

mark. And. Just kind of looking

5:18

back with. At least a little

5:20

bit of just sort of ah at

5:22

the Saxon, it leaves need else. We

5:24

came from this really necessary but really

5:26

sort. Of humbler, grassroots beginning.

5:28

And now here we are.

5:33

And as a resource, it's something, though

5:35

we. Refer folks all the time

5:37

to Scarlatti in both young people

5:40

themselves and parents and caregivers and

5:42

people who want to be a

5:44

resource to young people. And

5:47

not only to educate themselves re because at

5:49

this. point twenty five years later

5:51

there's plenty of information online but

5:53

one of the things i love

5:56

you do so beautifully is he

5:58

recognized full spectrum humanity of

6:00

sexuality. So right along

6:02

with say, safer sex information, you

6:04

get information about relational structures

6:07

and communication strategies. So

6:09

you can actually then go

6:11

have that conversation. What

6:14

has driven your model of, as

6:17

you say, it's not one question, one

6:19

answer when it comes to sexuality.

6:22

Can you talk a little bit about the values and

6:25

the principles that have really driven

6:27

your model of offering not only

6:29

information but support and a sense

6:32

of belonging? Of

6:34

course. So I would say

6:36

the biggest

6:40

sort of driver of how we

6:42

approach what we do

6:44

and what kind of information

6:47

we provide, often

6:49

through sort of like articles

6:52

or advice columns, is

6:54

the young people who come

6:56

to us for support.

6:59

And what I mean by that is

7:02

that we want our work to be

7:04

driven by the people that we're serving.

7:07

And that sort of extends to

7:10

some of our other philosophy and

7:12

approach as well, which

7:15

is that some other

7:17

resources or some of

7:19

the ways we talk about sex

7:22

and relationships culturally don't

7:25

necessarily treat young people as

7:28

whole people. There can be

7:30

a tendency to not treat them

7:34

as capable of weighing

7:38

decisions or understanding risk

7:40

or having, in some cases, really

7:43

complex emotions or thoughts about

7:45

things. And

7:48

so a big part of what we do, and I

7:50

think a big part of why we've

7:53

been around as long as we have, is

7:56

that we're a place where young people really feel

7:58

heard. they're

8:00

being talked to like complex

8:03

people about topics

8:06

where there's often

8:08

a lot of vulnerability or shame

8:11

or all of these other really complex

8:13

or difficult emotions. Yeah

8:17

and that comes through in all you do and can

8:19

you talk a little bit more about

8:21

the direct services you offer because often what

8:23

I hear back when I refer folks to

8:25

is I get an email a few months

8:28

later like wow that was way beyond great

8:31

information on a website. What are

8:33

the direct services you offer? How do

8:35

you actually engage in conversation with folks

8:37

when they're in sometimes and if

8:39

we can all take a moment right and I think this

8:41

is so important for adult listeners you

8:44

might be far from your teenage

8:47

and young adult years or you

8:49

might be at an ever-growing reflective

8:51

distance but when we look

8:53

back on our formative teenage sexual years

8:55

and who was there for us where

8:58

we went for information and how

9:00

important compassionate information and being

9:02

given the tools to make

9:04

decisions for ourselves were

9:07

at some of these pivotal moments of becoming

9:10

and those are the moments that people come

9:12

to scarletine with. People are in tender

9:14

formative moments

9:18

and you embrace them as a whole person so

9:20

can we just get a standing over that. But

9:25

what are the direct services you offer? How do you engage

9:28

with folks? Yeah so

9:30

there are three primary

9:32

ones. They're what people probably picture

9:34

when they're thinking a direct service.

9:38

So the first of those is our message board

9:40

and our message boards they

9:45

function to me kind of

9:47

like an old school forum and

9:51

they're public facing. There's

9:53

something anybody who visits the site can see

9:56

and what that allows for is

10:00

not only us to

10:02

offer support or advice, but

10:04

for users to offer support

10:07

to each other. And there have

10:09

been some really nice moments where

10:11

I've seen users

10:14

connect with each other or offer

10:16

perspective to each other. And

10:20

of course, those are also places where

10:23

people then are getting advice from

10:25

us, the staff and volunteers. We

10:27

do have even a place on the boards where

10:31

people can specifically post if

10:33

they want only

10:35

answers from Furlough team, not

10:38

from other users. The

10:40

next service is

10:43

our text line, which is,

10:45

it's really best for sort

10:48

of quick questions and

10:50

answers, but that and

10:52

then our chat

10:54

service are

10:56

both places where users can have

10:59

conversations with us that

11:01

aren't visible to other people. It

11:05

allows for that level of

11:07

privacy that some people

11:09

really need to feel comfortable

11:12

having conversations about really sensitive

11:14

topics. But I would

11:17

also consider the advice columns

11:20

are direct services, because

11:22

those come from questions

11:24

that people leave for

11:26

us. And so there are

11:29

another place where we are directly answering

11:31

someone's question. And

11:34

it's a place where we

11:36

can see what kinds of

11:38

questions are coming in, if there

11:40

are patterns, if there are issues

11:43

that seem to be suddenly really salient to

11:45

young people right now. So

11:48

I would say those are the sort of

11:50

the score that make up the direct

11:53

services. And I love that it's a way

11:55

of you also pass the mic around, you let

11:57

young people speak for themselves and

11:59

with information. through their multiplicity

12:01

of identities. And it

12:03

gives us this really rich chorus to draw

12:05

from. I was just looking at like an

12:08

autistic girl's guide to getting ghosting. And

12:12

I needed to read that specific

12:14

perspective. And it

12:16

was really a beautiful moment of how

12:19

many voices are on your site all

12:22

these years later. So

12:24

happy birthday, 25 years. Talk

12:27

to us about what you're noticing

12:30

in the online landscape that teens are

12:32

having to navigate. Cause there's teen sexuality

12:34

itself. And then there's like the cultures

12:36

teen have to navigate with

12:39

and through their sexuality. And it's

12:41

not an easy time to be young right now.

12:44

What are you noticing right now? And how

12:46

are you responding and how you're serving folks? Young

12:49

people to some degree,

12:52

and I just think some of this depends on

12:55

their own identities and

12:57

whether they belong to groups that are

13:00

currently being targeted by different kinds

13:02

of legislation. Is that they're

13:05

noticing these attempts

13:08

to restrict

13:10

their access to

13:12

information either

13:14

about their bodies or about sexuality

13:16

more generally, or about

13:19

their identities. And the

13:21

way we respond to that is

13:26

kind of by doing what we've always done,

13:29

which is continuing to respond

13:33

to the topics and the questions

13:36

that are being brought to us. But

13:39

that being said, we do also

13:42

want to put out things and do put

13:44

out things that

13:46

are about helping young people

13:50

navigate this particular political

13:53

cultural moment. I

13:57

believe last year, for instance, We

14:00

put out a guide

14:02

to abortion access

14:05

and privacy. So

14:07

basically how to protect your privacy

14:09

as much as possible when

14:11

you're seeking out abortion care in

14:13

a potentially hostile

14:16

climate. We

14:18

put out a piece this year

14:20

that's about finding queer media.

14:24

Because that was something we were

14:26

consistently having people come

14:29

to us asking for or in our

14:31

conversations with them, it would

14:33

become clear they just didn't know where

14:35

to start looking for it. And

14:39

on top of that, that piece was also

14:41

necessary because there were

14:43

active attempts to hide that kind

14:45

of content from young people. So

14:47

I feel like those are some illustrations of

14:50

kind of how we let how

14:53

young people are reacting to a current moment

14:56

guide the kind of resources we create

14:58

for them. Right, and

15:00

that youth-led voice, right, I'm thinking about,

15:03

right, I have friends who have recently

15:05

relocated across state lines to

15:08

be who they are more fully. And

15:11

as teens, as young people, we don't often

15:14

have points of agency that include relocating.

15:18

Sometimes as adults, we don't have access to

15:20

those points of agency. And so how do

15:22

we find how

15:25

we can navigate these times? And I just

15:27

want us all to take this in that

15:29

the teens are noticing the legislation

15:33

to try to control their access to

15:36

health, to education,

15:38

to information, and

15:41

having to navigate their reality

15:43

as a pre-voting person, often.

15:48

And resources like this, in

15:50

often cases, are life-saving resources

15:54

for the teens that have to navigate

15:56

the world us adults are generating for

15:58

them. And

16:00

so I do want to talk a little bit about how

16:03

do we do better by our

16:05

young people as sex positive adults.

16:08

Listeners of this show, we

16:10

are committed, right, to

16:13

not only experiencing more sexual joy and

16:16

connection for ourselves, but to create a

16:18

culture of that. And

16:20

how do we do better by young people in

16:22

our lives, other

16:24

than referring them to scarletine and

16:26

supporting scarletine so you forever exist

16:28

as a resource. What

16:31

are your thoughts on how do

16:33

we show up more as adults

16:35

and make ourselves visible as resources

16:37

to young people who might be

16:39

in our orbits? That's

16:41

a really good question.

16:46

I will say that we actually

16:48

have currently a

16:51

resource on the site called

16:54

Scarletine Confidential that

16:57

Heather and I put

16:59

together specifically for parents

17:02

or guardians or other supportive adults

17:06

who want kind of a peek at

17:08

the kind of things we're seeing young

17:10

people communicate to us and

17:13

then our advice on how

17:15

to approach those different topics. But

17:18

I think when adults

17:20

are thinking about signaling

17:23

being a safe adult to talk to

17:26

or a sex positive adult to talk to,

17:30

there are a few things that

17:32

can be really helpful and

17:36

they're often smaller things than

17:38

we think. One, well,

17:40

this is both big and small in some

17:43

ways, is making

17:45

sure or being mindful of

17:48

whether your words

17:50

and your actions are

17:53

actually kind of in harmony. Because

17:56

it's very easy in some ways.

18:00

to say all the right things

18:03

to a young person, but

18:05

it can often be much, much

18:07

harder to do the

18:10

follow through on those because

18:12

the follow through is often coming in

18:14

moments where there is probably

18:17

a big emotional

18:20

reaction from you as the adult. The

18:24

example I always give is actually

18:26

not sex related. It's,

18:29

I don't know how many people listening to this

18:32

have said or have had a parent

18:34

say to them, if

18:37

you are ever at a party and you

18:39

get drunk and

18:42

it's not safe for you to drive home

18:44

because you've been drinking and you're underage,

18:47

I would much rather you call me to come

18:50

get you than try to drive

18:52

home and hide it from me. I want

18:54

you to be safe and I am

18:56

willing to bet there are plenty

18:58

of young people who are told that and

19:02

then do what they

19:05

were told they could do in that moment only

19:08

to have it blow up in their face, to

19:10

have that parent or that adult get really

19:13

angry with them, to yell at them, to

19:15

scold them, to basically

19:18

make them regret making

19:20

what was in that moment the safe choice.

19:23

That's a moment where

19:25

probably the adult in the situation,

19:27

is feeling a lot of strong

19:30

emotions and it

19:32

can be hard to take that pause and go, I

19:36

need to make sure this actually

19:38

lines up with what I told

19:40

them and with what I want them to learn

19:42

from this situation, which in

19:44

this case would be, they can

19:47

come to me in these moments

19:50

where maybe they've made a not

19:52

so great choice and they need

19:54

help avoiding Some sort of

19:56

bad outcome, or they need help making a better choice.

20:00

Wanted to know they can come to me. But. That's

20:02

one of those things. Where.

20:04

You're probably doing that.

20:06

You're throwing that harmony

20:08

between. What? You say and

20:10

what you do. You. You're. Making

20:13

choices about. That probably dozens of times

20:15

a day. And.

20:17

Young people are often noticing

20:19

them. And those were

20:21

the choices. They aren't big. Gestures

20:23

or declarations of. You.

20:26

Know what a young person can or can't do or

20:28

can or can't rely on you for. But.

20:31

Over time A are. Few. Things.

20:34

That young person sense. Of

20:36

can I trust you. To.

20:39

Be some I can come through in these moments.

20:42

So real suspicious. You're thinking the

20:44

parents have a nine year old

20:46

and were really have no in

20:48

that conversation right? Of: how do

20:50

we stay askable? How do we

20:52

stay in an open conversation? Ah,

20:54

without. Also think some people as

20:57

adults we worry about overstepping. We

20:59

want to be available. We want to be

21:02

there for the conversation, but we don't

21:04

want to be intrusive. we don't want over

21:06

stamps, and so where is that line of

21:08

remaining approachable? And you know, when we

21:10

talk to parents about. Being

21:13

you know, pleasure positive even when little

21:15

and sex positive parents. I'm one of

21:17

the big thing as is not having

21:19

all the answers right away and be

21:22

able to say they are said wow,

21:24

that's a good question. let's find out

21:26

together because it buys you that pause.

21:29

And you can respond when you're less

21:31

reactive and also find out what the

21:33

question is being asked. And

21:36

something like Scarlett in.com where you

21:38

can take your own questions and

21:40

inform yourself before then going back

21:43

to your head that confidence of

21:45

having some refreshed information. Because the

21:47

truth of it A lot of

21:49

us parents are, we didn't have

21:51

sex education when we were kids.

21:53

We were part of the abstinence

21:55

only ways of sex education them

21:57

in this country at least. and

22:00

no matter where people are listening from There

22:03

are holes and gaps in what we understand

22:05

and what we know to be true So

22:09

thank you for hosting and

22:11

continuing to generate such an

22:13

amazing Resource

22:15

of it's not information. It's

22:17

knowledge It's wisdom

22:19

and knowledge deeply felt and

22:21

lived through the writers

22:24

and volunteers and you all the

22:26

amazing staff of scarletine Who

22:29

have been consistently doing this for 25 years

22:31

so the rest of us can have that

22:33

pause of not knowing Thank

22:35

you so much for all that you create When

22:38

we come back, I want to talk about how

22:41

we can all show up More

22:43

fully as pleasure positive adults for

22:45

the teens in our lives and

22:47

for the young people we care

22:49

about but we also

22:51

need to tend to ourselves and Take

22:54

steps to assure our own sexual

22:57

health and wellness One

22:59

of the most important steps there

23:02

is regular STI testing if you

23:04

are a sexually active adult It

23:07

makes sense to get a baseline and

23:10

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23:12

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23:17

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24:21

episode description and at

24:24

pleasuremechanics.com/toolbox. That's

24:26

pleasuremechanics.com slash toolbox

24:28

for this and all of the

24:30

other generous offers from our

24:33

podcast sponsors. Please

24:35

help keep independent grassroots

24:37

sex education like pleasure

24:40

mechanics and scarletine alive

24:42

and thriving. We need

24:44

your support directly to

24:47

continue doing this work. So

24:49

big thanks in advance for your

24:52

support of pleasure mechanics

24:54

and of our friends

24:56

at scarletine.com. You'll also find

24:58

links to scarletine in today's

25:00

episode description. For now

25:02

back to our conversation with

25:05

Sam, co-director of scarletine.com.

25:08

Where are you looking to as you look forward

25:11

from here from as you're blowing

25:13

out 25 birthday cake candles on

25:15

your scarletine cake? The big thing

25:17

we are looking forward

25:20

to and that we're really excited

25:22

for people to eventually

25:24

get to see is a

25:27

very updated version of

25:30

scarletine of the site. We've

25:33

got some new design.

25:35

We have some

25:38

new ways that we sort of organize

25:40

things to make it

25:42

easier for people to find information.

25:46

There's just a lot of stuff we're really excited

25:48

about with the updated

25:50

site. Thank you all for

25:52

doing it. We are going to throw

25:55

a bunch of links in the podcast notes

25:57

so folks can navigate

25:59

scarletine. and support your work.

26:04

Can you talk for a moment about the book?

26:06

I have bought this book for every young person

26:08

in my life. Can you

26:10

talk a little bit about the Scarlet Teen book as

26:12

a resource and a gift for folks? Yes,

26:16

so the Scarlet

26:19

Teen book is called that because

26:22

Heather wrote it. And

26:25

it very much reflects the

26:28

content that we have at Scarlet Teen, the

26:30

approach we have at Scarlet Teen. It's

26:33

called S-E-X, Everything

26:36

You Need to Know Guide for Sex

26:38

and Relationships in Your Teens and Twenties,

26:40

I think. It's the full

26:42

title. And it's

26:44

a really great resource

26:47

for a teenager or emerging adult in

26:49

your life. And I say this is, I'm

26:53

someone who got my first real

26:55

sex education by

26:57

my mom, basically leaving age-appropriate

27:00

books kind of lying around the house for me

27:02

to find. The age-old technique,

27:04

I think it can. It's

27:07

such a good technique of just

27:09

letting it be available at kids' own

27:11

pace. I remember

27:13

when my nephews turned like 13, 14, they

27:17

each got a copy. And what it does

27:19

is it just kind of signals like I

27:21

am approachable, you can ask me questions, and

27:23

it becomes a little bit of a running

27:25

joke in the family and

27:28

breaking that ice, especially

27:30

as someone who's not a parent, but is

27:32

a close adult and someone in a young

27:34

person's life. It's

27:37

a real gift and sometimes it's five

27:39

years later that the first question comes,

27:42

or they get one of their friends to call

27:44

you or text you on their behalf, right? It's

27:47

not always direct, but

27:49

just having these books available and gifting them

27:51

to young people in your life is such

27:53

a great strategy. And

27:57

I do know of... people

28:00

whose work brings them

28:02

into a lot of contact with young people, people

28:06

like school counselors, I

28:09

think even a few healthcare

28:12

providers or people who run

28:15

LGBT centers that have little libraries

28:17

in them have

28:20

made sure that they have a

28:22

copy of SEX. So

28:25

they can be there for young

28:27

people who need it, but maybe

28:29

aren't in a home

28:32

or life situation where it's safe

28:35

for them to have at the house or

28:37

anybody thought to have it in. And

28:40

the same goes for Wait

28:43

What? which is another book

28:45

of Heathers that

28:48

they made with Isabella

28:50

Rotman who did a lot of the illustrations

28:52

on the site at one point and that

28:55

one is for a younger

28:58

audience. That's more for the

29:00

middle school audience, but it is

29:02

still very much written from this same

29:05

perspective that all of our work at

29:07

Skirletine is done through where

29:11

this is about treating young people with respect.

29:13

This is about being honest

29:15

with them about things

29:18

like what it's like to

29:20

experience a crush or gender

29:22

identity. Maybe things

29:24

that don't always get hit

29:26

on in other resources for that

29:29

age group. And

29:31

this is what I love that Skirletine does

29:33

so beautifully is it really is that whole

29:35

story of sexuality and how it lives

29:37

in our lives and for a

29:40

lot of listeners just spending some time on

29:42

the site navigating, reading

29:44

some of these beautifully written advice

29:47

columns, getting your own questions answered.

29:50

It can be a gesture of

29:52

reparenting ourselves and resourcing

29:55

ourselves as adults that

29:58

are never too young or old. to

30:01

learn more, to get more information,

30:03

to be part of this beautiful

30:05

conversation. Thank you so much

30:07

for all you do at Scarletine and cheers

30:10

to 25 more years ahead.

30:15

Thank you. Since we're

30:17

on the subject

30:19

of looking forward

30:22

into the future for Scarletine, I

30:25

would be remiss to

30:27

not mention that because of

30:29

the kind of work we do and because

30:32

of the kind of organization that we are,

30:34

we are owned and

30:36

operated, grassroots, progressive,

30:39

all of that good

30:41

stuff, our funding

30:43

opportunities are pretty

30:45

limited. We've

30:48

only very recently been able to get

30:51

any kind of grant or foundational funding,

30:54

but you know we're not owned

30:57

by something bigger, we're

31:00

not sort of run

31:02

under government grants that come with all

31:04

these restrictions on what

31:06

you can or cannot talk about. And in

31:09

a lot of ways, being this

31:11

little scrappy grassroots organization

31:14

is great because

31:16

it lets us do the

31:19

work we want to do and do it

31:21

in the way that we know really serves

31:23

young people. But

31:25

that does come with

31:27

this sort of downside of money maybe

31:31

isn't always the easiest thing to come

31:33

by. So I do

31:35

want to say that we

31:38

are always looking for new

31:40

donors, especially recurring

31:42

donors, even like

31:44

a donation of just ten

31:47

dollars a month goes

31:49

a really long way towards

31:51

helping us be sustainable as

31:53

a resource and making

31:55

sure that we're still around. 25

32:00

years of content on that site. There's

32:04

the direct services.

32:07

And I think those things

32:09

are really valuable. And

32:11

a lot of other people seem

32:13

to think they're valuable too. So

32:16

if people are able, we really

32:19

encourage them to donate

32:22

or set up a recurring donation if

32:24

it's within their ability to do so. And

32:27

do it for the teen and you, right? It's like,

32:29

do it for the moment you needed this

32:31

as a teenager. Exactly. Do it because

32:33

you would take a teenager you love

32:35

out to a coffee and talk to them

32:38

about this stuff if they asked you

32:40

to. Of course we would. And

32:42

so throw $10 a month towards

32:44

Skarlatine more if you can. And let's

32:46

build a world where we all have

32:48

someone and somewhere to go to get

32:50

our questions answered and to be held

32:53

with love and compassion and non-judgment in

32:55

our most vulnerable of moments. Thank

32:57

you so much for being there for so many. It's

33:00

our absolute pleasure. Big thanks

33:02

and cheers to our friends

33:05

at skarlatine.com for 25 years

33:07

of serving teenagers, young adults,

33:09

and the teen in all

33:12

of us. We all

33:14

have questions when it comes to sexuality.

33:16

We all have places we need to

33:19

inform ourselves and learn from

33:21

the wisdom and perspective of others. And

33:24

Skarlatine is one of the richest

33:26

resources online available

33:28

for that honest conversation

33:30

around all things sexuality.

33:33

Please check it out. Use the links

33:35

in the show notes to support Skarlatine.

33:38

And we will be back with you next

33:40

week with another episode of Speaking of Sex

33:43

with the Pleasure Mechanics. I'm

33:45

Chris from pleasuremechanics.com, wishing

33:48

you a lifetime of pleasure.

33:51

Cheers.

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