In this episode, Hannah is joined by Lolo Cynthia, a gender and sexuality activist and educator from Nigeria. Lolo discusses her own experiences of sexualization and grooming as a curvy woman with big breasts, the harmful stigma and myths in Nigeria around girls’ bodies and sexuality and how that makes them more at risk to predatory behaviour. Lolo shares how she is working to empower young people and girls especially to reconnect with their bodies, trust their intuition and let this guide how they engage with sex. Hannah and Lolo chat about how interconnected alcohol and dating are and why Lolo feels bringing alcohol into dating prevents you from understanding how connected you actually feel to someone. Lolo also shares anecdotes about the different kinds of questions girls versus boys ask in her sex education classes, why she’s not allowed to include LGBTQ+ themes in sex education but how she finds loop holes to teach students about understanding and accepting themselves. Finally, Lolo discusses how to talk about sexual pleasure that is more inclusive of people with vaginas who have been circumcised and how those in the sex positive world can be better allies to people who have experienced FGM.

CW: grooming, sexual assault, and female genital mutilation

✨MORE ABOUT LOLO CYNTHIA ✨ Lolo started her own social enterprise, LoloTalks, to increase comprehensive sexuality education across Nigeria, with a special focus on people in underserved communities such as brothels and prisons. She created a sexuality toolkit – MyBodyIsMine- to use in schools and uses her various platforms to speak about the importance of sex education. Lolo’s interest in sexual and reproductive health and rights was deepened when she moved to South Africa and saw how issues around sexuality, including access to legal and safe abortion, were treated differently than in her home country. Lolo strives to educate young men and women about sexuality, respect, and contraceptives. As a natural leader, with a passion to drive positive change, she joined Niyel - an impact-driven campaign agency to create campaigns that lead to positive change in Africa and beyond

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lolo_cy - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lolo_cy/?hl=en - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LoloTalksInc

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