Puberty Health and Sex Education Content for Online Educational Resources for Gender-Independent, Intersex, Non-Binary, and Transgender (GIaNT) Youth

Gender-independent, intersex, non-binary, and transgender (GIaNT) youth have puberty health and sex education needs that are different from cisgender youth. Unfortunately, this population has historically been excluded from curricula pertaining to these issues in schools throughout the U.S. and Canada. While sex education programs are limited for all youth, and navigating puberty can range from exciting to scary for all youth, GIaNT youth are particularly vulnerable to facing negative outcomes by being omitted from such curricula. Because they are not able to access adequate information in schools and in their family/friend networks, a majority of GIaNT youth turn to the internet to seek out resources for education on puberty health and sex education. To this end, our team is in the process of creating an online educational resource (OER) that is age-appropriate and affirming for GIaNT youth to be provided with resources that are personalized to users’ unique needs. This literature review discusses content suggestions for inclusion of comprehensive puberty health and sex education that caters to GIaNT youth and their unique needs.