We Need to Talk About Vaginas by Dr. Allison K. Rodgers

A book for tweens about vaginas.

Strangely enough, it’s probably the only one that I know of.

Hi, I’m Cath Hak and welcome to Sex Ed Rescue.

Sex Ed Rescue is where I help parents to find a better and easier way to talk

to their kids about love, sex, relationships, and growing up.

It’s also where I review a lot of books.

I got super excited when I saw this book.

It’s called We Need to Talk About Vaginas,

an important book about volvers, periods, puberty, and sex by Dr.

Allison K. Rogers.

Now, she’s got a TikTok…

Did I call it a channel?

Anyway, she’s on TikTok and does lots of videos and educational stuff about this.

There is another book that’s about vaginas, but it’s pretty simple,

whereas this book is actually really comprehensive.

Now, I’ve got a background as a women’s

health nurse, so I was really pleased that there was stuff in there about smell

down there, odor, talking about pubic hair, diversity involved this.

I’m just going to show you what the book is actually about.

So that’s all the different topics.

At the back, it’s got a glossary.

I just love the detail.

Can you see the velvet outlines for the inside the cover?

Just little quirky things like that.

When I first looked at this book,

I thought it was European just because it was a little bit different.

I was actually surprised that it was

American just because it’s not a conservative book.

I look at a lot of books and usually you can spot where they come from.

So that’s why I was surprised that this actually was American.

So it’s got things in it like diversity and volvers.

It’s got a lot of myths around volvers as well.

So it’s got a bit of a guide as well

pointing stuff out, explains everything on the inside

and the outside, talks about the hymen periods, why you get them, what sex is,

pubic hair, seeing a doctor, what to do when things are itchy.

So I’ll just quickly, sorry,

showing you through a book and keeping it on camera is, let me show you the volvers.

So that’s the volver page.

So it just shows in there.

It talks about the differences between labia majora and menora,

which I think is really good because what happens is we see lots of diagrams like

this, and then kids see that and they go, Well, mine doesn’t look like that.

There must be something wrong with mine.

Because remember,

tweens are learning about their body, and when we look at how they develop

and as they go through period they want to fit in, they want to fit in.

They want to be like everyone else.

So when they see books like this

and there’s only like one page, it’s like, Well, that’s not what I’m like.

So they start questioning.

And so it’s very important then to be normal.

But what they don’t realise is that normal

is actually a whole spectrum and it’s broad.

It’s like, what’s normal for me might not be normal for you.

I also like that it had things like how to manage pubic hair.

It’s got a really nice section

on masturbation, which I was really pleased to see.

And it talks about the myths and why you might want to do that.

Consent’s in there as well.

And it’s also got internet safety as well.

Now, I forgot to check.

Hang on, let me pause this.

Is that going to pause? It’ll stop it.

Sorry, I knew social media safety was

in there, but I didn’t know where the pornography was in there.

So there is a small section in there that talks about pornography.

It’s even got gender identity in there as well.

You can tell this person…

You can tell the differences between books that people write and then books

that people write, and they’re people that actually work

with real life everyday people who are getting questions all the time.

This, Alison actually knows the pain

points of a lot of tweens and early teens, which I love.

It’s even got smell in there.

Itchy volvers, talks about vaginal discharge.

What happens when you go to see a doctor?

Keeping the volver clean, how to actually wash it.

It’s got period

and different colours of the blood and stuff, how to manage cramps.

It’s even got in there how to ask an adult for pads.

So as you can see, I’m starting to rave about this book a little bit.

I really like it.

If my daughter wasn’t 17, she’s going to be 18 next year.

That makes me feel old.

If my daughter was 10, maybe even nine,

depends on if you’re comfortable talking to them about sex yet.

But I would be getting a book like this, especially at the cusp of puberty,

because it’s just giving them a lot of information.

Knowledge is power.

And the more knowledge and awareness

that our kids have about their bodies as they grow up, the better.

I just hope to see that.

I hope that this publisher also puts out a book about penises.

They are are a guy…

I’m pretty sure they said they’re a gynecologist.

So they probably don’t have a lot to do with penises.

But hopefully the publishers will find someone who’s got a TikTok channel about

penises, and they’ll do a book about penises as well.

Because when I had my YouTube channel

for tweens and teens, I got a lot of penis questions.

Probably more penis questions than volver questions.

Anyway, interesting.

Also interesting that it’s called vaginas, but I guess we need to talk about volvers.

Vaginas is the term that most people do.

And the author does have volvers here as well.

But at the end of the day,

books need to have a title that people easily recognize.

I get why they’re calling it, we need to talk about vaginas.

And most of this book is actually about

the inside of the body, not just the outside as well.

So anyway, a great book.

And if you’re looking for a book that’s

going to empower your child, definitely grab it.

Okay, I hope you found that helpful. Cheers.