Spotlight on Laci Green: Breaking Silence Around Sexuality
When I first received the email that local YouTuber, blogger, activist and sex educator Laci Green would be coming to UC Santa Cruz in April 2015 to speak, I nearly walked straight into an elevator door out of distracted excitement.
In my opinion, Laci Green is a name every college student should know. I was first introduced to Laci’s YouTube channel a few years ago by one of my close friends, who claimed that Laci had helped them learn about topics of sexuality and healthy living. After watching about 15 seconds of one of her videos, I was hooked on her personality and sense of humor that she maintained while presenting factual, useful, and memorable information.
Founder of the popular YouTube channel “Sex Plus,” Laci Green creates funny, informative, accurate, and entertaining videos about topics that are extremely important, yet rarely addressed. Some issues covered in her videos are sexual health, consent, feminism, and other matters relevant to those of all gender identities/sexual identities. She also addresses fat shaming, slut shaming, body image, LGBTQ issues, self-esteem and relationships.
Laci’s communicative approach is casual, open and outgoing. She maintains a bubbly enthusiasm throughout all of her videos, which makes watching them enjoyable as well as educational. She has a way of making potentially uncomfortable or awkward topics discussable, and by cracking jokes all throughout her videos, she is easily able to connect with viewers.
On Laci’s primary website, www.lacigreen.tv, you can find her Sex Plus Mission statement, containing objectives that are central to each one of her videos:
- Entertain, educate, and connect internationally with Sex Plus viewers.
- Promote a comprehensive model of sex education using technology.
- Provide a feminist framework for sex education and discourse.
- Improve accuracy and inclusivity of sex education online and off.
- Facilitate productive conversations about Sex Plus topics.
A highly-accomplished graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Laci is an extremely successful 25-year-old from the San Francisco area. She earned a certificate in rape and dating violence crisis counseling, and serves as a consultant for Planned Parenthood, Discovery, and MTV Act. Additionally, her work has been acknowledged on CBC, ABC, Dr. Phil, The Science Channel, The Atlantic Magazine, Ms. Magazine, The Huffington Post, Upworthy, and many more (http://www.lacigreen.tv/). As of November 2014, Laci is the host of MTV’s first original YouTube channel, “Braless“, an examination of gender, race, and sexuality issues in pop culture (http://www.lacigreen.tv/).
Laci Green is an important voice for the college student demographic in calling to our attention that rape culture is not a thing of the past. Rape culture is a current reality, and sexual assaults occur more frequently than we tend to acknowledge. Laci is at the forefront of social change in this area, educating teens and college students about how to prevent sexual assault and violence, as well as teaching young adults how to take care of their health and well-being. Moreover, she is an inspiration to anyone struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, as Laci struggled with both of these issues personally in the past. She exemplifies the good that can come out of turning struggle into strength, which explains Laci’s huge popularity; “Sex Plus” reaches 5 million young adults each month in more than 125 countries (http://www.lacigreen.tv/)!
The University of California, Santa Cruz will have the pleasure of welcoming Laci to campus on April 23, 2015 at “Laci Green: Taking Down Rape Culture.” This event will be held at the Colleges Nine and Ten Multipurpose Room at 8:00PM, and will be open to the public (but seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis!)
And for those at other colleges, click here to book Laci to speak at your university!
Check out some of Laci’s most popular (and hilarious) videos from her channel Sex Plus–she has tons of them!
Happy YouTubing!