For this year’s Sexual Health Week, we’re announcing the release of Vagina Matters, our illustrated sex education book, in the UK. The book was created and produced by us at Fine Acts, a global nonprofit creative studio for social impact, and published in the UK in collaboration with our partners Daye, the gynae health innovator, and the UK's leading sexual health and wellbeing charity for young people, Brook.
In over 250 pages, Vagina Matters covers everything from periods, vaginal health and STIs, to body positivity, sex, LGBTQ+ issues, as well as self-exploration and masturbation. It is a guide for young people to understand their bodies, and take charge of their sexual health.
Vagina Matters specifically focuses on the experiences of girls, as well as trans and non-binary people, aged 12 to 14, but can be read by anyone. Consulted by countless sexual health experts, it provides a great starting point to the core topics covered in comprehensive sex education.
The book is available to read online for free on the Vagina Matters website, or in print for an affordable sum via Daye, our publisher and distributor in the UK.
Vagina Matters is an open book, created with the idea to make it available for publishing in different languages and contexts. The initiative kicked off in 2019, with the launch of an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign that helped fund the first edition released in Bulgaria. Now, with the launch of the English edition, the initiative is going global with its first such collaboration.
“We’re set on encouraging a culture of curiosity and openness around sexual health issues that are so crucial to growing up and understanding ourselves. For this reason, the book is published under an open license, enabling anyone anywhere to translate it into their language,” says Svetla Baeva, Campaigns Director at Fine Acts and co-author of the book.
Vagina Matters aims to close the sex education gap by empowering educators and nonprofits around the world with engaging resources to promote sexual health awareness. To find out how to bring the Vagina Matters movement to your country, find out here or write to us at vm@fineacts.co.
Vagina Matters is created and produced by Fine Acts. It is authored by Svetla Baeva, Campaigns Director at Fine Acts and activist Raya Raeva, and illustrated by two sister artists Borislava Karadzova (Borislava Madeit) and Mihaela Karadzova (Stalker 1993).