“Can You Get An STI If Both People Have Never Had Sex???” —a question box answer by Dr. Joanna Palmieri

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“Can You Get An STI If Both People Have Never Had Sex???” —a question box answer by Dr. Joanna Palmieri

So the short answer has to start with,”How do you define having sex?” Sex encompasses the physical activity between people that involves touching each other’s genitals. That touching can happen in many different ways including genital to genital, anus or mouth, as well as fingers and even objects.  All of these can lead to the transmission of an STI or sexually transmitted infection, so let’s define that while we are at it.  An STI results from the exchange of infected bodily fluids or skin cells. Bodily fluids including semen as well as pre-ejaculate, vaginal fluids and blood. Other STIs can be passed to partners via skin to skin contact with an infected body area.  

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What Are the Kids Calling It These Days?

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What Are the Kids Calling It These Days?

A glossary of slang we’ve gotten from students recently

One of the joys of teaching is how much you learn from your students, and sex-ed class is a great place for a rich vocabulary exchange. Sometimes they’re testing us; sometimes it’s to make their classmates laugh. Fortunately urbandictionary.com provides a wealth of resources for cracking the code and showing the youths that yeah, we know a thing or two. Read on for some of the new terms we’ve seen most often in the past few months–mostly from 7th, 8th, and 9th graders–and the “teachable moments” they’ve offered.

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April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month→

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April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month

Helping Survivors* is an organization on a mission to help heal, educate, and empower people who have been impacted by sexual assault and abuse. They have provided us with a really important resource addressing the difficult topic of child sexual abuse.


Key Takeaways

  • While child sexual abuse can happen to anyone and be perpetrated by anyone, it often occurs with someone the child knows and can take many forms

  • Child sexual abuse often occurs after building trust or grooming a child and the abuse can span over years, often starting subtly

  • Survivors of childhood sexual abuse have rights and options, and many states are lifting or expanding the statute of limitations

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How To Talk With Your Kids About Porn, a book review by Beth Rendeiro

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How To Talk With Your Kids About Porn, a book review by Beth Rendeiro

How to Talk With Your Kids About Porn is a book all of us should read. Although the term “porn”, referring to pornography, is in the title…and we do learn a lot about the current state of porn…the most important takeaway from this book is its emphasis on the need for communicating with young people. This is a book that’s accessible, non-judgmental, inclusive and fun to read. It offers a how-to format that guides us step-by-step toward becoming better communicators about sex, sexuality, media literacy and porn, describing different ages and stages and the topics and approaches that work best at each age. It helps us think, broadly, about online safety  and general sex education while honing in on the topic of porn.

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March 4th is Human Papillomavirus (HPV) International Awareness Day– by Joanna Palmieri, M.D.

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March 4th is Human Papillomavirus (HPV) International Awareness Day– by Joanna Palmieri, M.D.

 Let’s get our kids vaccinated and prevent HPV related cancers!

 There are quite a few reasons why and here are some very important HPV facts:

  • Absolutely every single human being is at risk of becoming infected with HPV. Studies show that 85% of people will get an HPV infection in their lifetime.

  • The prospect of a high-risk HPV infection progressing to cancer is about 10%, even though about half of HPV infections are from high-risk strains.

  • There are approximately 13 million Americans infected with HPV annually.

  • HPV is spread by close skin to skin contact or touching during vaginal, anal and oral sex.

  • A person can get HPV when their vulva, vagina, cervix, penis or anus is touching another person’s genitals, mouth or throat.

  • The virus is spread by the skin to skin contact itself, which means that the sharing of bodily fluids is not necessary for transmission.

  • This virus can also be spread when an infected person has no known or visible signs or symptoms of active HPV.

  • It is impossible to track the exact time of exposure to HPV, especially because a person can be infected with more than one strain at a time. 

  • Most people will clear a strain of HPV in about 2 years, but it is not known how long a person can pass a strain on to others within that 2-year time frame.

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The Smell of a Vagina

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The Smell of a Vagina

Let’s face it, not many people really want to talk about the smell of a vagina. Yet it is, after all, just another body part that deserves to be talked about. So here we go! The vagina has many different smells that can indicate a wide range of conditions; which could be healthy, or require evaluation and treatment, or signal different stages in our lives, or are affected by what we consume, the activities we engage in, and even our hygiene practices. It is essential to normalize open dialogue about  the vagina and its composition, just like we talk about our mouths, noses, ears and other body parts without embarrassment. 

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We are Committed to Fighting Anti-Trans Disinformation

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We are Committed to Fighting Anti-Trans Disinformation

It’s a rough time to be transgender (trans) in the US. It’s not that it hasn’t been before, but these last few years have made it particularly difficult (especially if you live in a “red state,” and even more especially if you’re under 18). Trans rights, and queer rights in general, are under attack to an alarming degree. More than 500 bills targeting the rights of LGBTQIA+ people were introduced in 2023. And seeing the direction things have been going, there’s so much at stake for queer rights in 2024.


So much of this recent wave of trans panic stems from disinformation about trans and queer people.


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Making Connections and Making an Impact

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Making Connections and Making an Impact

I love what I do. I’m grateful every day to have meaningful work that I know benefits young

people, even when it’s hard. Sometimes it can be challenging to have such a short amount of

time with a class; relationship building is immeasurably valuable to education, and we often

don’t get to know the students the same way their regular teachers do. But it’s beautiful to see

the impact we can have, even with just a few sessions, and to know that those messages will

last for years—even decades—after we’ve left their campus. Here’s a short list of some recent

highlights from the classroom:

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Bodily Autonomy is a Fundamental Human Right

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Bodily Autonomy is a Fundamental Human Right

We help children develop an understanding of autonomy so that they recognize that they are unique, independent and capable.

Children have a right to live free from physical acts, such as touch, to which they do not consent. And to reinforce the right to bodily autonomy in all the spaces that children exist, we make it clear to the parents, caregivers and educators that bodily autonomy requires respecting boundaries, affirmative consent, and self-defined personal comfort with affectionate touch.

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Join Us In Person! Saturday, November 18th, 2-3pm Yoga Fundraiser

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Laughing Frog Studio in West LA

12217 Santa Monica Blvd #205, Los Angeles, CA 90025

Please join us for a donation yoga class benefitting More Than Sex-Ed on Saturday, November 18th. The class will be from 2-3pm, and after from 3-3:30pm please join us for complimentary tea and cookies. This yoga class is open level, meaning everyone is welcome and encouraged to come, whether this is your 1st class or 100th class. The class will be contact-free (unless consented) and focused on loving connection of mind, breath, and body. We encourage you to bring your own yoga mat if you have one, or you are welcome to borrow one at the studio.

The class will be taught by Advisory Board Member and certified yoga instructor Alix Kelsey. You can read more about her practice and teaching style here: 

We hope to see you there!

 Praise for AMAZE! by Emma Milkin

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 Praise for AMAZE! by Emma Milkin

Just a couple of weeks ago, I got the chance to take part in a virtual conference hosted by AMAZE, and have nothing but positive things to report back.

For example, in a breakout session, we were given some valuable tools by Jess McIntosh when it comes to defending against disinformation. Jess guided us through building your message to support your values for your sex ed curriculum in the face of adversity. 

I am feeling equipped with lots helpful resources and am thankful to the AMAZE team for organizing such an awesome event.


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Save-the-Date! November 28th!

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Make a plan to donate to MTSE as part of #GivingTuesday

We at More Than Sex-Ed enthusiastically plant the seeds that start conversations about sexuality. We work in partnership  with young people and the adults who support them in order to nurture a healthy start in which relationships can grow and thrive.

When we started in 2015, we were a small organization providing sex education for youngsters in just a few middle schools, and that effort has now bloomed with programming in over 45 schools in pre-K through12th grade!

We are grateful for your support in our growth.

Our impact has been unmistakable and the numbers speak for themselves. 

#GivingTuesday is a global generosity movement, unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world.

Talk With Your Kids Month: no one ever said it was easy…

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Talk With Your Kids Month: no one ever said it was easy…

October is “Talk with your kids” month, and we encourage you to consider the wide number of intersecting topics that affect our understanding of human sexuality, and how we communicate these complexities to our children. 

In order to be comprehensive, sex education needs to cover many, many subjects, but we  can’t do it all at once. And it’s okay to focus on one thing at a time. A focus is not an exclusion. Just because we might be thinking and learning about Intersex Awareness issues on Oct 26, for example, doesn’t mean we can’t make connections between intersex identities and what we know, or want to learn, about mental health, or periods, or vasectomies, or AIDS, or menopause.

read on for a list of awareness days in the month of October that could inspire a conversation:


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Have you checked out all the resources for parents at Amaze.org?

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Since its debut in September 2016, AMAZE has published well over a hundred educational videos on topics including puberty, gender identity and expression, pregnancy and reproduction, healthy relationships, STIs and HIV, sexual orientation, and personal safety, to its YouTube channel and website. 

To reach youth, educators, and parents, Amaze content is published on five social media platforms: YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter. 

Parents and caregivers can preview every video and curate a playlist of videos they want to share with their kids. It really is an incredible resource!

Check out this series for parents and caregivers on “having the talks”. https://amaze.org/having-the-talks/


Shout out to "Puberty: The Wonder Years"→

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Wendy Sellers, sexual health educator, founder of Health4Hire, Inc., and author of Puberty: the Wonder Years recently chatted with our very own Emmalinda MacLean about the challenges of teaching puberty education. We are delighted to see Emmalinda receiving the recognition she deserves for her outstanding work as an educator.

Read more here: https://pubertycurriculum.com/educator-spotlight-emmalinda-maclean/



In honor of Sexual Health Awareness Month, we’d like to highlight the work of the American Sexual Health Association

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In honor of Sexual Health Awareness Month, we’d like to highlight the work of the American Sexual Health Association

 The American Sexual Health Association, ASHA, is a trusted, non-profit organization that has advocated on behalf of patients to help improve public health outcomes since 1914. They are a highly respected American authority for sexually transmitted infection information.

The information you find on their website is based on well-researched and documented medical facts and follows approved treatment guidelines as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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The Barbie Movie sparks plenty of discussion

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In the movie "Barbie" Margo Robbie lives in a pink Barbie world neighborhood where everything goes her way.

We’ve certainly had plenty of conversations over here about the Barbie movie. Lots of feels. Lots of quotes flying between our team members. Lots to think about when it comes to gender roles, patriarchy, inclusion, justice, and identity. Actually we could probably explore the whole More Than Sex-Ed curriculum using Barbie as the discussion starter. 

So I was really happy to find this blog post by gender specialist Rebecca Minor, with such great discussion questions that you can use to start your own conversations with the kids in your life.

Rebecca holds a master’s degree in social work and works extensively in the field of gender identity. You can subscribe to her blog here: