Author: Grace Li
Operation HER is an organization focused on increasing access to reproductive education amongst youth. In this interview, I had the pleasure of speaking with the leadership behind Operation HER on their motivations and goals in leading change for reproductive education.
Q1. Was there a specific moment, experience, or gap in reproductive education that inspired you to create Operation HER? If so, how does this experience guide how you lead Operation HER?
Yes, one of the biggest things that inspired Operation Her was realizing how limited and uncomfortable conversations about reproductive health can be for teens. In school, information can either be outdated, surrounded by stigma or very basic.
Many teens are curious and want to learn, but often are confused where to go for reliable information. Seeing that gap made us realize that there was a need for a platform that presents reproductive health in a way that is both educational and approachable for teens.
This experience guides us how to lead Operation Her today. We focus on making our content relatable and judgement free. Instead of making information feel intimidating, we try creating content that makes teens feel comfortable through promoting easy learning tools.
Q2. What are the biggest barriers you’ve seen in getting teens to engage with reproductive health content, and how have you adapted your messaging to address these barriers?
One of the biggest barriers is stigma. Many teens may feel embarrassed discussing reproductive health, especially the topic about periods or sexual health. Another barrier is the spread of misinformation on social media, where false information spreads quick.
To address this, we focus on making our posts engaging, easy to understand and approachable. We use short posts and visuals so the information feels less intimidating. We also aim to normalize these conservations by presenting them as a regular part of health and well being, aswell as through attempting to build a higher teen interaction with our brand.
Q3. As you grow your audience and possibly expand beyond Instagram, what new formats (workshops, podcasts, offline events) do you envision being crucial to your mission?
Some new formats we believe are integral to our brands growth across our community is through workshops. We are currently working towards building online and in person workshops to help teens gain hands on learning experience, in a judgement free zone. Some conversations are best said through live interaction. Our non profit believes that through this community engagement we will really see stigmas, cultural barriers and education barriers being broken.
Thank you so much to Operation HER for joining us in this interview! Please see their work here: linktr.ee/operationher_
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