Illustration: Borislava Karadzhova (Borislava Madeit) and Mihaela Karadzhova (Stalker 1993) for Fine Acts
After much anticipation, we’re announcing the expected release of Vagina Matters, our illustrated sex education book for girls, this fall. The book was created by us at Fine Acts, and backed by close to 200 people in over 20 countries from across the globe in our Indiegogo campaign that we launched last May.
And, we are launching in two countries simultaneously – Bulgaria, and the United Kingdom!
Vagina Matters covers everything from periods, vaginal health and STIs, to body positivity, sex, LGBTQ+ issues, and even self-exploration and masturbation. It aims to close the sex education gap in Bulgaria and beyond. It is the first illustrated sex ed book for girls in Bulgaria – a country that completely lacks sexual health education classes as part of the approved curriculum and, along with Romania, has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in the EU.
1500 free print copies will be distributed in Bulgaria together with our partners Loveguide.org, the largest online platform for sexual education in the country, and the Bulgarian Fund for Women network. The book will also be available for free (in the form of a PDF) on the Vagina Matters website already in September.
Vagina Matters is an open book, created with the idea to make it available for publishing in different languages and contexts. “We’re set on encouraging a culture of curiosity and openness around sexual health issues that are so crucial to growing up and understanding ourselves. For this reason, the book will be published under an open license, empowering anyone anywhere to translate it into their language,” says Svetla Baeva, Campaigns Director at Fine Acts and co-author of the book.
In the first such collaboration, Fine Acts partnered with Daye, the gynae health innovator, and the UK's leading sexual health and wellbeing charity for young people, Brook, to publish the English edition of the book in the UK in November. The book will be available for free (in the form of a PDF) on Daye’s site, and in print for an affordable sum, to be fully donated to uplift women’s rights worldwide.
“It is crucial that we empower our young people to understand their bodies as this allows them to become their own health advocates," says Ndidi Edozie-Ansah, Education and Wellbeing Manager at Brook.
Vagina Matters is a project and a publication by Fine Acts. It is authored by Svetla Baeva, our Campaigns Director and activist Raya Raeva, and illustrated by two sister artists Borislava Karadzova (Borislava Madeit) and Mihaela Karadzova (Stalker 1993).