Youth-led Storytelling for Sexual Consent Campaign

Campaigns & ActivationsEducation ProjectsIllustration & DesignConsulting & StrategyYouth Leadership
Written By BOHIE
Cover of a co-designed zine created with ACT youth, featuring bold hand-lettered text and playful illustration. Developed as an approachable, lo-fi resource to help young people navigate sexual consent through relatable, real-world scenarios.
 

Case Study

 

Overview
Rebranding sexual consent education with real youth voices from the youth government advisory board.

Client: Sexual Health and Family Planning ACT (SHFPACT)
Year: 2023
Project Scope: Youth-led campaign rebrand | Workshop facilitation | Visual storytelling | Education design | Sexual consent awareness
Category: Youth Voice, Education, Illustration and Project Facilitation

 

Reframing the conversation on sexual consent for young people.

Commissioned by SHFPACT with funding from the ACT Community Services Directorate, this project aimed to rethink how young people engage with messages about sexual consent. In partnership with the ACT Government Youth Advisory Council and SHFPACT’s Youth Peer Educators, I facilitated a series of creative workshops to collaboratively reimagine their outreach strategy.

Rather than producing a one-off artwork or clinical resource, the team co-designed a suite of campaign materials rooted in real experience and practical language. Together, we developed a hand-illustrated zine featuring comic-style “moments of consent,” a pull-up banner showcasing diverse survey responses, and bold visual assets like posters, stickers, and t-shirt graphics.

 

This design showcases a chorus of real survey responses from young people describing how consent makes them feel—ranging from “hot” to “nervous but in control.” Rather than distilling consent into a single metaphor (as the previous “Chilli” campaign did), we made a conscious design choice to honour the diversity of experience and emotion. By including many voices, we aimed to reflect the nuance of consent and make space for all feelings—awkward, excited, empowered, and everything in between.

Youth-led illustration based on a real-life story shared during workshops. Designed to show what it looks like when someone confidently declines an advance—and how a respectful response can turn an awkward moment into one of mutual understanding.

This scene was co-designed with young people to explore how to set clear boundaries in a work context without escalating tension.

Collaboratively developed comic with young people, highlighting how consent continues in long-term relationships. This scene normalises everyday check-ins, emotional care, and the importance of accepting “no” with warmth and understanding.

Participants felt it was vital to model care and connection when someone says “not tonight” in a long term relationship setting —normalising rest, reassurance, and mutual respect.

 
Co-designed illustration with youth participants, showing a respectful consent conversation via text after a first hookup—designed to model clarity, boundaries, and mutual respect.

We chose to show not just the “no” but also the respectful response that follows—reinforcing that consent includes how we respond to rejection, not just how we express it.

 

My Role

  • Facilitated two creative workshops with youth participants aged 16–25

  • Led the visual direction, tone-of-voice, and brand refresh

  • Illustrated and co-wrote a zine filled with realistic, respectful consent conversations

  • Designed a toolkit of campaign materials for distribution across youth spaces

  • Consulted on strategic messaging, accessibility, and visual communication across formats

Outcomes & Impact

  • Delivered a complete rebrand of SHFPACT’s youth consent education campaign

  • Created a suite of educational tools shaped by youth voice and real-life experiences

  • Shifted the tone from metaphor-heavy (e.g. the former “Chilli” campaign) to clear, relatable messaging

  • Embedded young people in the design process—ensuring that the final resources were not only for them, but by them

  • Supported by the ACT Community Services Directorate and rolled out through SHFPACT’s statewide youth health services

By modelling what affirmative consent can actually sound like, we aimed to make these conversations feel more accessible, especially in intimate moments where nerves or uncertainty can get in the way.

 
BOHIE

Based in Braidwood, NSW, BOHIE creates art, illustration, public space murals, and creative workshopping experiences that explore wonder and connection to each other and to the natural world.

She works alongside educational institutions, government agencies, community focus groups and stewards of the natural world to design change-making campaigns for each creative project. Bohie utilises a research-based methodology to find inspiration for her artworks, resulting in 2D images which are laden with deeper stories and symbolic meaning.

This narrative driven conceptual development injects her unique authenticity and grass-roots integrity into the public arena, which she sees as a conscious challenge to public advertising. In a time of rapid change, extreme instability and a globally recognised feeling of imminent threat, Bohie’s art provides messages of hope and empowerment for a changed future.

https://www.bohie.com.au
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