Shannon Orchard Young

What actions are you taking to promote and protect the health and rights of women and young people worldwide?

I promote the health and rights of young women and young men (and those yet undecided or unsure) through daily conversations about bodies, about health, about the social determinants of health and how we feel about ourselves. I do this via a weekly radio collective show, through community organization participation, through the research I partake in within the university structure, and by writing letters and articles to media outlets and health journals challenging the biomedical construction of young women sexual and reproductive health. I also run healthy sexuality workshops which is where the grant money would go. I am also in the middle of putting together an alternative sexual health manual for young women in my community. Most importantly through advocating that young women gain self autonomy over their bodies is a goal I start everyday with.

What is your vision of lasting change for yourself and for the world's young people?

I do not think that there is such a thing as lasting change because young women are so intimately impacted by governmental, economic, and political policies that structure our access to sexual and reproductive health care is always changing and or threatened depending on which party is in government. The idea of something sustainable for me would entail that young women have access to sex ed information that is practical, that they can see themselves in, that is created based on their needs and is not constructed via the biomedical perspective. The goal is to be able to make sexual health decisions based on idea of autonomy and agency and the ability to make the choice for what is best for me (young women and men) at that given moment–without fear or physical/mental harm.

If you could tell world leaders one thing, what would it be?

I would tell my leaders to get out of their offices and on to the streets and start talking to young people. Young people have much to say and this is valuable. If you are making decisions for them, they should be at the table. We need to change and challenge the top down way that sexual and reproductive health information is disseminated. Decisions should be made based on sustainability and autonomy and not based on economic priorities.