For many generations, parents, grandparents and caregivers have struggled to talk with their young children about sexuality. This struggle is rooted in our own understanding of sexuality: how our families communicated about sexuality growing up, messages we have heard about sexuality from patriarchal, puritanical, white supremacist and colonial cultures, and how we experience sexuality in our own lives.
Even if we do not know what to say, how to say it or when to say it, caring adults can prepare, practice, and motivate one another to start conversations about sexuality at home.
Sexuality education can help children develop the skills it takes to caretake, steward, and protect their own bodies. Children can then use these skills to caretake, steward, and protect other people and living beings in their lives.
I am here to act as a bridge between generations, helping parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, therapists, and teachers communicate about sexuality with the children in their care.
My curriculum is queer and pleasure affirming and addresses how social media, online dating, pornography, artificial intelligence, and sexting shape how children understand and experience sexuality.
My journey as a sexuality educator began in 2011 when I worked in the teen clinic at my community health center. I went on to train with and volunteer for Planned Parenthood in an educational teen theater troupe. I then completed my undergraduate degree at Oberlin College and spent the next several years teaching a diverse range of subjects only to return to sexuality education in 2021. I completed my certificate in Sexuality Education at the Antioch University of Seattle and the Our Whole Lives elementary training in 2022. In the spring of 2023 I started Living Earth Sex Ed.
My family and ancestors are from Belgium, Italy, Scotland, and England. Outside of sexuality education spaces, I find joy and meaning in dancing, making music, and learning from plants.
Living Earth Sex Ed is brought to life with the help of many people. You can find a long and loving list of their names here.
All of the illustrations on this website were created with my own hands, I hope you enjoy finding them nestled in the corners of this site.
-Claire Appelmans she/hers