Inspiring Health & Protecting Futures
The Body Literacy Project equips educators and leaders to empower American students now with the knowledge they need to protect their healthspan, their lifespan, and their fertility in the future.
Why We Need Body Literacy
Historically, sex education has been laser-focused on teaching adolescents how to avoid pregnancy. But the declining state of the physical and mental well-being of young adults paired with the emerging infertility crisis reveals the short-sightedness of this approach. America’s students deserve to know what they can do in the present to safeguard their overall health, and possible dreams for a family, in the future.
Distinct from traditional sex ed, and much more than current hygiene-focused puberty instruction, body literacy education informs students of the connection between their hormonal health (and therefore, fertility) and their overall health.
Through body literacy, students are:
Empowered to detect reproductive health conditions earlier, reducing their time to treatment and optimizing longevity.
Empowered to discern the difference between symptom management and root-cause healing for hormonal health concerns.
Able to bring the same level of intentionality to their goals around their long-term health and future family as they bring to planning their education and future careers.
Less likely to engage in sexual risk behaviors (also associated with health disparities and infertility).
Whether you are an educator who wants more for your students, or a policy maker ready to enact Body Literacy education standards through your school district or state department of education, the Body Literacy Project is here to support you.
Together, through body literacy, we can meet American students upstream of chronic disease, unplanned pregnancy, and infertility.
We hope you’ll join us!
BODY LITERACY IS
A tool that offers accurate language to name embodied experiences and support healthy communication with parents, healthcare professionals and others.
A lens through which we understand how our reproductive health relates to our overall health, empowering a lifetime of free, prior, and informed consent over sexual and reproductive health choices.
A bedrock understanding of the mature human body, and the necessary foundation for Sex Education.
BODY LITERACY IS NOT
Puberty Education - A lesson to prepare students for changes to come, often focused on hygiene.
Sexual Education - A lesson on intercourse, biology of fertilization, safer sex practices, etc.
A set of value judgements regarding behavioral, sexual and reproductive health choices.
Teaching Body Literacy
The Body Literacy Project provides curriculum, training, and resources that empower schools and communities to teach the next generation of Americans body literacy with confidence.
Age-appropriate, evidence-based curriculum delivered in an experiential, engaging format
Training materials, support, and professional development for educators
Policy briefings and model legislation to aid decision-makers in integrating body literacy standards in their school districts and their states
Learning Objectives
ABOUT WOMEN
Basic female anatomy and female physiology: Healthy women are cyclic beings
The Four Phases of the Female Cycle, and how women can expect to feel during each phase.
Reading and interpreting biomarkers of the Female Cycle
Understanding ovulation as the main event of the cycle
The 5th Vital Sign: How hormonal health (and fertility) relates to overall health
Identifying healthy periods and cycle abnormalities and when to seek help
Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of ovarian suppression for symptom management of menstrual health concerns vs. root-cause treatments.
ABOUT MEN
Basic Male Anatomy
Basic Male Physiology: Testosterone is responsive to stimuli of challenge and action
How healthy testosterone levels support overall physical and mental health
The Brain as the Primary Sex Organ
The Physiology of Arousal: waking erections or wet dreams as signs of hormonal health
Techniques for managing spontaneous arousal to optimize health and protect future fertility
How repeated arousal fostered outside of sex can rewire the brain
Bring Body Literacy to Your School
REVIEW CONTENT
Request sample curriculum packet
GET EQUIPPED
Activate your license, and Access training, resources, communication, and the full curriculum
SEE THE IMPACT
Watch your students self-efficacy and confidence grow
Benefits of Body Literacy
FOR EDUCATORS
Teachers receive 8 ready-to-use lessons (4 for adolescent males and 4 for adolescent females) aligned with body literacy standards detailed in model legislation. Complete with engaging activities, up-to-date videos and real-life scenarios, teachers will feel confident they have the knowledge they need to succeed and the tools to make it happen. The curriculum includes:
3 Hours Pre-Recorded on-demand Training for Educators
Access to The Body Literacy Project community platform
12-month curriculum license
FOR POLICY LEADERS
For state legislators and school board members who want to make a difference in their students lives, the Body Literacy Project simplifies the process of passing body literacy standards for reduced health disparities and public health costs, healthier communities, and better long-term outcomes for American students. Get the package today:
Policy Briefing
National survey of existing educational standards
Model body literacy education standards legislation (for school district level policy or an amendment to existing state health ed standards)
Still Unsure? Let's Connect!
Let's get the conversation started! Tell me what's on your mind, and how I can best connect with you.
About the Body Literacy Project
OUR FOUNDER
Katie E. Vidmar, MTS is a Body Literacy and Fertility Awareness Educator, and a passionate advocate for bringing holistic women’s health to underserved and under-resourced populations. She is the creator of Elevate, a training program for healthcare professionals designed to address health disparities through shallow-entry approaches to Body Literacy, Cycle Tracking, Fertility Awareness, and creating avenues toward root-cause healing for menstrual health problems in community health settings. As founder of the Body Literacy Project, she aims to ensure that every young man and woman in our country receives the knowledge of their bodies that is their birthright. She writes and speaks nationally, advocating for Body Literacy Education and Cycle-Informed Reproductive Healthcare for Women. She lives in Bismarck, ND with her husband and family.
A LETTER FROM OUR FOUNDER
Dear Reader,
Body Literacy matters for the same reason that general literacy matters. Literacy is a path to freedom: if a person can read, then he is much less likely simply to take other people's word for how and what to think. He can go to the source and think about it himself, and make informed decisions about what's right for him.
Just as we strive to teach every student in America how to read, The Body Literacy Project was founded on the belief that every young man and young woman in America deserves to be equipped to read the language of their bodies, to read and interpret the signs their mature bodies give them each day.
If literacy is the ability to decode the signs and symbols of language and to understand what they mean, body literacy is the ability to understand the signs and signals our bodies give us each day and to understand what they mean. Just as in language, where letters become words and words grow into sentences and sentences build into paragraphs, and paragraphs become stories, learning to pay attention to our bodies signals builds overtime, and the story of our body and our health begins to emerge in an intelligible way.
Body Literacy is powerful.
With Body Literacy, adolescents can more quickly identify when their experiences, though they may be common, are not normal, and empower them to reach out early and often if their intelligent bodies reveal they need more support. When we teach Body Literacy, we equip students with the foundational knowledge they need to chart a course toward health and wholeness for life.
Without knowledge of basic body literacy concepts, young men and women are blind to the ways the decisions they are making in the present will shape their healthspan, their lifespan, and even their fertility in the future. In a word, they are deprived of having informed consent.
Why is this the case? Stated simply, because we can’t protect what we do not know. Just because American students may not want to start their family right now, many of them see themselves wanting to have a family of their own in the future. Body Literacy gives young people the knowledge they need to make their long-term reproductive health goals a reality.
As founder of the Body Literacy Project, I invite you to become a part of the change you wish to see and join us! Whether you are a policy leader or an educator, I invite you to come with us on our mission to ensure that every young man and every young woman in America receives the knowledge of their bodies that perhaps you did not receive - knowledge of our bodies that is our birthright.
Join us!
Katie E. Vidmar