I was excited to answer some questions for the American Sexual Health Association, after being selected as their Ambassador of the Month in February 2017. Interview retrieved from http://www.ashasexualhealth.org/ambassador-of-the-month, February 2017:
We are so pleased to announce that Lydia M. Bowers is our most recent ASHA Ambassador of the Month!
Lydia became an Ambassador in the fall of 2016 and when asked what motivated her to join says “I think it is vitally important to get accurate information out into the world, and I was impressed with how ASHA supports its Ambassadors in doing so.”
With 13 years as an early childhood educator, Lydia says we need to do a much better job in teaching young people about sexual health. “My passions in sex education and advocacy intersect with early childhood education in my desire to help parents and caregivers understand and appropriately support sexual development in children,” she says. Lydia is working with ASHA to develop a workshop curriculum on Being an Askable Parent to encourage parents to have frank, productive talks about sexual health with their kids. “We live in a society that uses sex to sell hamburgers, but is taboo to have healthy conversations about. By changing how we support sexual development from birth, and building our comfort in having conversations with children, we can begin to shift the vicious cycle of misinformation that exists.”
Lydia uses all forms of social media to spread sex-positive messages so look for @LydiaMBowers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, and follow her. “I also love that being an Ambassador makes sexual health resources more visible,” she says. “I’ve had people message me, having seen my posts, asking questions that they didn’t know where to look for answers. Being able to direct them to resources and help with information is awesome.”
The best part about being an Ambassador? “I love being part of the Ambassador group – it’s a great place to learn new information, and see how each person’s specialties and passions translate into information about many different areas of sexual health – it’s a huge field! “
ASHA Ambassadors are people who speak sexual health. A team of individuals leveraging the power of social media to get the word out about sex health, Ambassadors support our online conversations by tweeting, posting pics, sharing and ‘liking’ posts and all things social media. Learn more about the ASHA Ambassador program here.