Scarleteen (then Pink Slip): 1998
As we're rolling out some redesign we've been working (and working to fund) over the last year or so, we thought we'd celebrate by sharing some of our history.

Mind, it's probably more fun for our readers than it is for me, since showing designs from times when the tech to do design blew, and one's (notice how I avoid saying my?) skills were less honed is a bit like streaking naked through a busy city street, or winding up at the ER after an accident when wearing the rattiest undies in your drawer.

Thank goodness, I came to web design with some solid design skills already -- though some not-at-all-slid coding skills, I pretty much had to learn that by the seat of my pants -- so I was better equipped than a lot of people making sites, but that still doesn't mean everything was awesome, and that I don't shudder a little bit to see some of my designs of yore.

However, I've at least resisted the attempt to embarrass myself less by showing screenshots of other sites at the time so I could be all, "This was kind of crappy, but dude, look at CNN's page back then! Theirs was really fugly." And yes, I do expect props for walking that high road, thank you very much. (If you're deadly curious about any sites of yore, you can always lose many hours to the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive -- or as I call it, the Web Designer's Walk of Shame -- which is where I grabbed these shots of our old designs.) I mean, designing for the internet back when was kind of like walking through the snow several miles barefoot, backwards, without any mittens and... oh, you get the picture.

Fair warning: This blog entry is being written in the midst of total exhaustion, including the very special kind of exhaustion that happens after a long time working on web development while doing everything else one does for work on top of that.

Thus, silliness, the oversimplification of many a larger issue and a longer story and/or many nonsequiturs may follow. Revise: will follow.

Scarleteen: 1999
When we first started Scarleteen, it wasn't Scarleteen at all, but instead a little branch-off site from another site, Pink Slip, and it was sexuality information that, at the time, was only for girls. That's because when the site was started, it was because it was girls, and only girls, writing into us with questions. And questions. And more questions.

At the time, there really was little to nothing else on the internet where anyone could do that -- of any age, not just young people, though the pickings were particularly slim for young people online when it came to any kind of site. So, it's not surprising that for every question we answered, a pile more came in.

To give you an idea of the difference in Internet traffic between then and now, the amount of backbone traffic in 1998 was 5,000–8,000 terabytes; in 2011, it was 3,400,000–4,100,000 terabytes. In 1998, there were around 1.5 million public websites online (a big jump, too, from even a couple years before), and in 2011, there were around 555 million.

The internet was a very different place. It was much easier to get found and to find what you wanted and there were far few people on it to deal with.

Scarleteen: 2000ish
There was no social networking, and when you told people you did something on the Internet for work, they usually looked at you funny and then asked when, exactly, you were going to go back and get a real job.

At the end of 1998, we took the micro-site off the other domain it was sharing and got it it's very own, Scarleteen.com. Because people ask what on earth a "Scarleteen" is -- as they would! -- we called the site Scarleteen because the site people initially found us with was called Scarlet Letters, and one of the young people who originally wrote us asking for advice said that we really should have a Scarlet-teen. We thought so, too, so, that's what we did.

We also thought we should open it up to more than just girls, so we did that, too. And in no time at all, we were getting users of all genders to the site.

Within a year or so, to make room for ever-expanding content and users, we did another redesign (personally, I think this one was my personal fave of all our past designs). As we'd done with the previous designs and style of the site, we pulled from a lot of retro styles and imagery to keep things pretty light and fun, something we've always felt was important when dealing with so many issues that can make so many people feel so uncomfortable.

Around that time, we were able to get hooked up with a great network of sites through the (dearly departed) ChickClick network, which also gave us the ability to be funded really well for around nine months until the bottom fell out of the internet financially in 2001, and all the people who had put big bucks into internet startups, got way bigger bucks because we all made them great content to make big bucks with -- but then lost them, or just took what they had and skeedaddled -- went home and the rest of us whined. We whined a lot.

But we soldiered on, which included my perpetual fiddling with the design now and then, even though my loud howls of frustration with the limitations of doing it after many sleepless days on end at a time made more than one neighbor in my apartment building deeply nonplussed.

Scarleteen: 2002-2005
Around this same time, a few other teen or young adult sex education sites started to show up. That was neat. We felt less lonely. But our traffic kept growing, what we offered and the way we offered it was still then -- as it remains now -- a bit different than other sites and resources offered, so we kept working on improving, including adapting our design, especially since the tools we had to work with for both design and programming getting better and better, thank goodness.

In 2002 or so, we did this version of the design, which brought out what will now forever be called the "cozy pajama stripes." A user once lovingly called them that, and ever since that design, when we've consulted users about new design, it's common for people to make clear they are vary attached to said-cozy-pajama-stripes, and they'd be sad if they went away. As anyone who knows me can tell you, that's also happy news for me, since I tend to coat everything I can in stripes: if it were up to me, nothing on the planet would be stripey-less.

Side note: so used to the yellow stripes of Scarleteen did I get, that without even realizing I was doing it, I painted a whole room in my last rental place in yellow stripes nearly identical to what we have had here at Scarleteen for almost ten years now. This was only brought to my attention by a volunteer who had come to visit as a guest, and came down to coffee the following morning mentioning how freaking weird it was to have literally slept inside the website. Whoops.

Internal Pages: mid-2002 - 2005
If you were around back then, you might recognize some of these internal pages from the design at the time, too, when the different sections all used to each have their own super-special colors and design, rather than being the same or similar for each section.

Some years later, right about the time that the very talented and very generous developer Garrett Coakley began working with me on moving the site from something I had to hand-code every single page of (no, I'm not kidding, and if you've done any hard-coding now you see that this business about walking in the snow barefoot and backwards wasn't all that dramatic of me, after all), I believe it was pointed out to me that while the graphic artist in me must think all these different graphics and designs were very shiny and nice, they kind of tended to make pages load VERY FREAKING SLOWLY. I cried, but I got over it.

(I so didn't cry. Now I'm being dramatic.)

So, for a very nice change, I only needed to do the design, while someone else tended to the development. This was lovely, even though getting used to some things I couldn't do in Drupal -- which is the open-source content management system we were shifting the site to then, which we still happily use now -- that I could do in plain old HTML was a sticky wicket.

And all of that gets us to the version of the site that we had up until...oh, about five minutes ago.

The design that, now that it's gone, and I feel less mortified saying it out loud, I can tell you I privately called The (Not at All) Great Wall of Text-a.

Scarleteen: 2006 - 2011
Ultimately, over the last few years, the challenge that we faced was how to make as clear as we could all of what was inside the site right from the front, a challenge when you've got thousands and thousands of pages of content, and not a page of it fluff or filler. Then we'd add some new feature, and there would be one more thing we'd want on the front page: it was a neverending battle, one fought with an awful lot of hyperlinks.

Over the years, I've futzed and I've futzed, trying to move blocks to make it work a bit better, but still kept facing the conundrum of that one big ol'block of text.

Around a year ago, kickass designer and illustrator Martina Fugazatto (if you're interested in urban gardening, you can also see her cool urban garden site, here) offered to volunteer some of her time to Scarleteen, and after we'd worked out an update for our logo, she and I started working on the front page. As we have in the past, I asked some of our users what they liked and didn't, would or wouldn't want changed to figure out where to get started and what was most important to keep and most important to ditch or adjust.

Of course, there's also this thing with web design that's a lot like clothes in your closet. If and when you wear the same t-shirt, and nothing else, for many years, you tend to grow to hate a t-shirt you once loved. I had things like that with this site, like, for instance, the dashed lines that divided sections, which I had begun to develop a very unhealthy and completely unreasonable resentment for.

Martina and I tossed versions back and forth between us for months until we jointly came up with something we both really liked (if you most know, until we both were on either side of the continent we're on simultaneously shouting YAY! loudly in email and WAHOO! over Skype). Then I took it to the folks helping in development for us at the time, and they gave me an estimate which they told me in advance would give me a heart attack. It totally did. So, our funding not being even remotely able to pay for new development at that level, it sat, poor shiny new design that couldn't come out to play.

Until... our new developer Casey Faber came on board! Working with Casey, we were able to come up with a way to get the site changes we wanted and could also afford. So, I went back to the dusty drawing board, fiddled some more with the work Martina and I had done, and created some additional elements, including for internal pages. Casey did her own work, I fiddled and adjusted as we went, and at long, wonderful last, we're able to offer our readers what we all think here at Scarleteen is a pretty darn spiffy, and much more useful, update of our last design, keeping the elements of previous designs we know our users and readers have loved the most, ditching some of them they haven't, adjusting others, and adding some new colors and elements to make it all look (if we do say so ourselves) awesome and be a lot easier to use.

We're still finishing up some final touches here, and with design or programming changes, there are always little things -- sometimes big things, but here's hoping for the best -- that come up you didn't find out about until it went live despite weeks of testing. We hope you like the changes as much as we do, and look forward to having it for a long time before we start groaning about it.

(And by all means, if you're having any trouble or issues with the redux of the site, please let us know! You can leave a comment right here, in our suggestion box, or email us. Cheers!)

Last December, we began our end-of-year fundraising for Scarleteen with a goal to raise the minimum we needed from online donors for 2012, $35,000, a very modest ask compared to other organizations or projects of or near our tenure and level of service.

Unfortunately, we still have not yet been able to raise even half of that sum. As of today, we have raised almost $15,000. We're so very grateful to the 135 individuals who donated generously to help us get to that sum, but that total just won't do. We run our organization and services far more cost-efficiently than similar organizations or groups, and can stretch a dollar like nobody's business, but that can only get us so far.

We need that minimum of 35K for this year -- which, combined with a private grant and existing donors, still giv us only $80,000 to do everything we do -- in order to sustain and maintain our services and those who provide them, create new content and tools, and to keep our organization afloat.

We don't like to ask for money again (actually, we don't like asking for money at all) so soon after we've just asked, but what we like even less is the prospect of being unable to continue with the level of education, information and support that so many people rely on us for and have valued year after year. So we're asking again.

We didn't use to do fundraising at the end of the year: for years we did our yearly push around Valentine's Day. Why Valentine's Day? Well, because everyone is usually talking about sex and love already, for one. As a sex and relationships education organization, we're obviously up with sex and love. Commodified holidays, not so much, but at the same time, celebrations of love and sex are things we'll generally figure can be a Good Thing.

Too, it's a time of year when an awful lot of people shell out an awful lot of money to express, celebrate or instigate sex and romantic love. Americans alone will spend close to 17 billion (that's right, 17 billion) dollars on flowers, candy, baubles, bangles, cute underpants, dinners, getaways and other gifts and tokens. We think that spending ten, twenty or fifty dollars less on that stuff so you can support something a lot more likely to help people cultivate and nourish healthy, happy sexual and romantic lives when they want them (and with no risk of cavities!) is a great gesture of love and care, one certainly more meaningful than a Whitman's sampler or lingerie that's really for the person buying it rather than the person it's being given to.

We keep hearing people asking where truly comprehensive, inclusive and thoughtful sex education can be found, or even saying that no one does or provides that kind of sex education anywhere.

Where is progressive, inclusive and in-depth sex education, information and support most young people around the world can easily access, any hour of the day they want or need it?

As the millions of teens and young adults who find it at Scarleteen every day of every year can tell you -- nearly 5 million of them used our site and services in 2011 alone -- it's right here.

Where's sex education that's as supportive of people choosing not to engage in sex as it is for those who are? Right here. What about sex ed that also supports those choosing to have an active sexual life, including with partners, and does so without judgment? Right here. Where's sex and relationship education that really talks about what makes relationships healthy and what makes them unhealthy? Right here. How about sex ed that addresses consent clearly and thoroughly? Right here.

Where's the sex ed that isn't just for straight people, able-bodied people, cisgender people or people whose relationships are inside the proverbial box? Right here. What about sex ed that also helps victims or survivors of sexual assault or abuse, intimate partner violence or domestic violence? It's right here at Scarleteen.

Where's sex ed that helps young people unpack misinformation or mixed messages they pick up from friends, parents, poor quality sex ed or abstinence-only and the media? Right here. Pro-choice sex education, and sex education that not only isn't conspiculously silent about abortion, but talks about it openly and soupportively? Here. Sex education that talks about body-image, self-image and self-esteem? Here. Sex ed where people can actually engage in candid, frank conversations with someone educated who they can trust, someone who won't blow them off, blush or back away when they ask questions? Here. Sex ed whose agenda is set by what those receiving it are asking for, rather than by funders or state or federal mandates or politics? Here. Sex education that actually addresses pleasure, and talks about sex as something that isn't just about avoiding the bad stuff, but seeking out the good stuff? Here, again. Where's sex ed that also is sure to provide all the basics, like information about anatomy, safer sex and STIs and contraception? It's all right here.

We've been right here, doing all that we do for 14 dedicated years now, and we'd really like to keep on doing it, continuing to hold up a high bar for not just online sex education and information, but all sex education; the kind of thoughtful, in-depth, diverse and candid sex education young people themselves ask for. But we need help and support in order to keep doing that.

It probably doesn't surprise you that sex ed this forward-thinking, this progressive and this pioneering isn't usually the kind of sex ed that gets state and federal funds or giant grants. It's not the kind of sex ed taught in most schools, even those with comprehensive programs. During most of the years we've been around, here in the U.S. federal funds weren't even available for ANY comprehensive sex education, and that's not something which has improved much with the end of the Bush administration. It's also not something very likely to improve very much very soon from the looks of things. And private funding for sex education of any sort, let alone sex ed like we private, is also tremendously hard to come by, especially when you answer to those you provide services to and what they want, rather than to funders, whose aims and agendas often aren't in alignment with what young people say they need.

But we're stubborn, and we've kept doing what we do despite all the challenges, financial and otherwise. We love doing what we do just as much as those who benefit from all our services love it, and our hope is that anyone who also loves what we do and can help us to keep doing it will.

If you already know that all the kinds of things people are asking for in sex ed can be found right here at Scarleteen, and you know how valuable that is, we'd very much appreciate your help. If it's news to you that we've got all this going on, or you've never even heard of us before today, take some time to look around: if you like what you see, please help us out. Even a small donation can make a big difference.

If you want a great way on Valentine's Day to demonstrate some love and care, to support sex and sexual or romantic relationships that are as good as they can be, we don't think you could do better than to give a little towards a service and organization as deeply passionate about and dedicated to quality sexuality and relationships education as Scarleteen is.

If you'd like to know more about who we are, what we do and why and how we do it, or how else your contribution will be utilized, the links below are some starting points. We're also always happy to answer any questions you may have directly, including discussing larger contributions or private grants: feel free to email us anytime.

Big thanks for taking the time to read and consider our ask of you today, and we wish you and yours the richest celebrations of sex, love or both you might have today and every day. If you're able to give today and support what we do, we hope your hearts swell all the more with the knowledge that you've helped give young people a big foundational piece of what they need in order to best cultivate, navigate and enjoy their own sex and love lives, in all their awesome diversity, for the rest of their lives.

• Support Scarleteen: Your Support Gives Young People Our Support
• All About Scarleteen
• Scarleteen Is...
• Support Scarleteen
• What Is Healthy Sexual development?
• User Testimonials
• About Our Bully-Free Zone
• Our 2011 Demographic Survey
• Real Peer Education

UPDATE: As of 2/18/2102, 21 new donors contributed an additional $1,795 in support. Thank you! We still have a long way to go to reach our $35,000 minimum goal, but your help gets us that much closer!

last updated 4/13/2012You probably heard that Siri, the digital assistant on the iPhone 4S, could help someone find Viagra or a sexual escort, but not a family planning clinic, a local pharmacy to get a birth control prescription filled or an abortion provider. Whether that was intended or a glitch, it was understandably very upsetting. At Scarleteen, people can get easy help finding those important services and more through our SMS service, our fully moderated message boards, our growing Find-a-Doc database and, of course, our exhaustive information about contraception, abortion and other reproductive choices, sexual healthcare and so many other sexuality and sexual health topics.

Some people sure paid a lot of money for a tool that didn’t serve them or others well. Scarleteen users get those services and much more for free. We give teens and young adults real people to talk with, for nearly 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, when the thousands of pages of in-depth, thoughtful information at Scarleteen don’t have all they want or need. While all of that is free to our users, providing it to them costs money.

You may have appreciated a recent piece on sex education at the New York Times. It profiled a sex educator who doesn’t limit sex ed to a dry curriculum, simplistic sound bytes or fearful warnings about the terrible, horrible things that will happen to teens if they engage in sex. We certainly appreciated it. Approaching sexuality as something potentially positive and enriching, rather than as only harmful, damaging or merely neutral is something we’ve always done. You may have seen this piece on why inclusive sex education is important. We know that, too: Scarleteen is inclusive of a spectrum of orientations and identities, including in our leadership and staffing. And we aim to be inclusive with more than just orientation, but also with gender identity, embodiment, relationship models, reproductive choices, socioeconomics, cultural and religious beliefs and more.

We know sex and sexuality aren't just about the bad things that can happen. We also know healthy sexuality and relationships aren’t things only heterosexual, gender-conforming, able-bodied, middle-class or white people can attain, and that one of the most important protective factors for healthy sexuality and positive sexual experiences and outcomes is real inclusion in sexuality education and support. Holding those kinds of positions limits our access to resources other organizations and initiatives who take a different stance have. But even when we’ve had to fight a long battle like we did with the ACLU over the COPA to defend these positions, we know this is what serves people best and is what we intend to stay true to, with or without media or political support.

Every year, millions of teen and young adult readers get the truly comprehensive sex and sexual health information, education and support they want and need at Scarleteen. Scarleteen users frequently express they find a level and a quality of education and service here they have not found anywhere else, including in school-based sex education and at other organizations or sites with exponentially greater resources.

We need your support because what we do costs money.

Scarleteen is an independent, grassroots organization without federal, state, institutional or foundational funding. We are, as we always have been, supported primarily by private, individual donations from people like you. And unlike some sex education services for young people that have come on the horizon lately who seek to charge them for information, we recognize the realities of the social and economic status of young people, and aim to always provide our services to them for free.

We often need to explain to potential supporters what it is we do and the many ways that we help young people. The fact that we’ve got more pages of original, thoughtful, in-depth and progressive sexuality, sexual health and intimate relationship information online than anywhere else makes some of what we have to offer obvious. But what might be less apparent to someone who isn't one of our young users is all of what we offer here and how much it can benefit them.

• B. was a young teen who came to us in a pre-existing sexual relationship with an adult cousin describing clear dynamics of sexual and emotional abuse, but was not aware the relationship was unhealthy. We helped B. evaluate it with our articles and a lot of one-on-one discussion so B. could get out, then get help. We were there for support every step of the way while B. went through the challenges of disclosing and reporting, and then a locally publicized legal case. When B. came through all of that, we were still there to help in the healing process, then later to help with navigating a wanted, consensual sexual relationship. We’re still here years later – the same people, with no limit on how how long B. can keep talking -- as B. continues that process and begins a college life with a new sense of freedom, excitement and empowerment.

• S. is a South Asian young person who was struggling with her family trying to choose a spouse for her, something she had very mixed feelings about, primarily because she is not heterosexual. We helped S. talk though her questions about her orientation and sexual identity as she became clear she was lesbian, and spent many months supporting her through struggles to figure out the differences between what she wanted and who she felt she was and what her family wanted and who they wanted her to be. We helped connect her with culturally-relevant material and organizations, and supported her while she took the plunge of connecting with an LGBT support group. We supported her when she came out to some people, including her family, and kept supporting her when they were unaccepting. We continue to support her still -- she has also become an amazing support for some of our other LGBT users in areas or cultural groups who are unaccepting -- as she moves forward into the life she wants for herself, and tries to find ways to make that work for her without taking on a western cultural identity that isn't hers or doing things she does not feel are right for her as a lesbian.

• N. was a young woman of color who came to Scarleteen after manipulation from two different CPCs when she needed an abortion, a wanted procedure the CPCs stalled to the point that she could not afford a procedure herself anymore and was in the final week she could terminate. Barely out of her teens, a parent already, unemployed and neglected by family, she had also recently gotten herself out of of an abusive relationship. She knew remaining pregnant would have tied her and a child to her abusive ex-partner and made supporting herself and her two-year-old impossible. We walked her through every step of the process – including the difficult-to-navigate system of abortion funding, as well as helping her find a quality clinic and giving her emotional support she was without. When her transportation fell through, one of our supporters and colleagues stepped up to our call for help to get her to the clinic on time. When some of the funding fell through, a couple more supporters stepped up to our call to action to help. With our teamwork, she got the procedure she wanted and needed and emotional support throughout, and has since reported that her life has tremendously improved thanks to help she got from Scarleteen.

• A. also first came to Scarleteen when she was pregnant, and wanted to remain pregnant, and had no emotional support from friends or family. We provided her with that support. When she later disclosed she had been in, and was still in, an abusive relationship, we took the time, over years, to help her through the process of leaving it safely with her child and moving into a life free of abuse as a very young, single parent. A. is now not only a Scarleteen volunteer, but a paid staff member of our in-person outreach to homeless and transient youth in Seattle. Utilizing her life experiences and unique talents, together we developed a presentation for youth about reproductive coercion and unhealthy relationships which she delivers a few times each month. The youth we serve value and respect what A. gives them greatly, connect very well with her, and she has greatly informed and benefited our local outreach and our organization as a whole.

There’s also the user who utilized our text service after a sexual assault to get help gathering courage to go to the emergency room: we stayed on the line with her all day and into the night, giving her support throughout the many steps of that process. There’s the user who grew up in a socially conservative environment and married young, which was supported by his community, but who found himself without help or support from the same community when his wife filed for divorce, and when he realized that the strict gender roles he was raised with had resulted in the loss of his most cherished relationship. Or the evangelical user who engaged in sex before marriage and who struggled horribly with immense levels of guilt she felt unable to disclose to anyone in her community: she came to us for those conversations and that support. Or the homeless youth in Seattle this year who received pro-choice options counseling via our partnership with a local shelter: three young women made difficult choices with pregnancies, but all left these conversations with extensive resources and support for their different choices to terminate, arrange adoption and parent they didn't have before and couldn't get elsewhere.

Young people like these have said that without Scarleteen, they don’t know how they would have gotten through what they did and come out on the other side as well as they did. Young people like these rely on us to give them a kind of information and support they often say they couldn’t find anywhere else.

We know bad things or unwanted outcomes can happen. That’s why we dedicate so much time and energy to serving young people dealing with difficult trauma, issues or circumstances. However, not all of the young people who use Scarleteen come to us in crisis. Plenty come to us without traumatic experiences, or before they've engaged in any kind of sexual activity or sexual relationship. And that's just as important: we help young people create a foundation most likely to support healthy, happy sexualities and sexual lives and informed sexual choices they feel good about.

Users frequently voice surprise that we remember who they are as they come and go. Yet this isn't surprising for an organization who deeply engages with the people it serves as a core part of its model. We think this level of engagement and commitment is essential to serving young people well, particularly with issues as diverse, personal and complex as sexuality, core parts of their identity and intimate relationships.

A phone robot won't know or remember these stories and these people. Organizations who invest more time and energy in acquiring funding than in service, who base or change their missions or aims on the politics or whims of funders rather than on the expressed needs of those who need and use their services will not have a staff and volunteer staff who know all of these stories by heart like we do. Sex education initiatives which get hamstrung by social or political battles or by foundational or institutional red tape often never get off the ground to hear these stories or speak with these youth.

This level of service requires people with deep and abiding dedication and care, but it also costs money.

It can be easy to look at all we do for the many years we've consistently done it for and think we've got all we need to keep doing it. But we don't: the amount of funds we have to work with in a given year is typically about the same as the median income for one family in the United States, a budget which means closed doors for most organizations. We're proud of our ability to do all we have with so little, and proud of the profound commitment of our staff and volunteers. However to sustain our organization and all that it does and can do, we need continued and increased support.

That’s why we’re reminding you how much we need and depend on you.

You can assure Scarleteen remains available to the hundreds of thousands of young people who find what they want and need here each month by making a donation today.

Your contribution is something you can feel proud of because of the many young people's lives it helps us positively impact together; because of the dedicated passionate and compassionate education and support it provides them in an area of life where so many so often are undereducated and unsupported. Your contribution gets a thank you every single day through every young person who is able to use a fully comprehensive, caring service like ours. And it gets a big thank you from all of us at Scarleteen, who know exactly how valuable what you can give is, and who are grateful to you for helping us continue to do the work we so love doing.

If you'd like to know more about who we are, what we do and why and how we do it, or how else your contribution will be utilized, we've provided the links below as great starting points. We're also always happy to answer any questions you may have directly, including discussing larger contributions or private grants: feel free to email us anytime.

• All About Scarleteen
• Scarleteen Is...
• Support Scarleteen
• What Is Healthy Sexual development?
• User Testimonials
• About Our Bully-Free Zone
• Our 2011 Demographic Survey
• Real Peer Education

I want to focus this entry on the second of the optional questions in the demographics survey. Of the 2,000 participants who completed the survey, this question was answered by 1,530. The question was this: Since using Scarleteen, which of any of the following has changed for you, and by how much?

We saw a couple comments at the end of the survey, from statistics-focused folks, concerned that our aim was to state that whatever improvements users reported were solely because of Scarleteen. That was never the intent.

The intent in asking this questions was primarily to get a picture of what, if any, improvements relevant to what we address here our users were experiencing which may have been due to using our services or may not have been. What we most wanted to see was not the areas where we may have done a good job or where our users already felt things were going very well for them, but areas where it would seem sound to say we currently are not having the impact we'd like to with positive changes. In other words, this question seemed likely to be most useful in identifying our potential weak spots, rather than our strengths, and could give us a clearer sense on how and where we should look most to improve our content and approaches.

We also figured we couldn't expect many users to be able to identity if positive changes or a lack thereof had to do with their use of Scarleteen or not, or, if it did, only had to do with using Scarleteen. We do hear from users in direct services, in email, and did from some in comments to this survey, about how they feel Scarleteen plays or has played a part in improving certain areas of their lives. Some of the answers to this question were, indeed, reflective of some of the positive feedback we get.

At the same time, some of these changes tend to happen for some people as they move through adolescence and into adulthood, regardless. So, in the interest of intellectual honesty, as well as supporting young people's agency, we've framed this the way we did and are now because while we feel it's fair to figure that Scarleteen may have had some of the impact reflected in the answers, as these are issues we work on with and for users, but we also don't feel it is sound for us to claim a given level of authoritative ownership or influence with those changes with a survey like this.

I personally feel some the more illuminating answers, the answers most useful to us as an organization always aiming to improve how we serve our readers and users, and always needing to identify where we could do better or need to work harder, were the ones where a good deal of positive change was not reported. Some of those answers were surprising to me and to the volunteers as well: without that feedback, our awareness of these possible weaknesses would have been much more limited. (Thanks, survey participants!)

Here's that data in text, with the highest percentage of answers to each question bolded:

Since using Scarleteen, which of any of the following has changed for you, and by how much:

My relationships have improved (1,452 answers): No change, 10.4%, a little, 10.9%, some, 21.0% (305), a lot, 15.4% (223), not applicable, 42.4%. Comments reflected that many of the users answering either are not in relationships or feel their relationships are already of high quality.

I feel more able to make and respect my own best sexual choices: No change, 3.6%, a little, 9.5%, some, 22.5%, a lot, 42.8%, not applicable, 21.6%.

I practice safer sex more or more consistently: No change, 9.7%, a little, 4.7%, some, 11.1%, a lot 19.7%, not applicable, 54.8%. Again, some of this is was spoken about in comments regarding not being in relationships, or safer sex seeming to be something participants were already excellent at. However, given that we know from other data sources and one-on-one conversations with users that many people have incorrect ideas about what safer sex is and how to do it properly, and given some of the answers below reflect a good amount of respondents not doing part of safer sex at all, this answer still concerns me.

I use birth control more or more consistently: No change, 13.1%, a little, 3.3%, some, 7.4%, a lot, 17.3%, not applicable, 58.8%. See above, though also bear in mind that around half of our users are not heterosexual and many have no need for contraception when they are sexually active.

I have sought out sexual healthcare: No change, 18.7%, a little, 6.3%, some, 11.3%, a lot, 16.8%, not applicable, 46.9% . Again, some of N/A being the highest answer here is about users who have not yet had life or health experiences that facilitate a need for that care. At the same time, this is an area where we have often experiences many users clearly in need of that care who avoid it, so, this set of answers is a concern.

I have been able to ask a sexual partner to get tested: No change, 20.5%, a little, 4.2%, some, 5.2%, a lot, 9.9%, not applicable, 60.2%. While yet again, some of this may be because there has not been a partner to ask, we do often experience users who feel they don't have to ask or feel testing isn't needed when it is, so this answer also raises concern.

I have gotten tested for STIs more often (or for the first time): No change, 22.5%, a little, 3.6%, some, 6.9%, a lot, 10.6%, not applicable, 56.5%. See above.

I feel more able to set sexual limits and boundaries: No change, 7.3%, a little, 11.0%, some, 18.9%, a lot, 33.0%, not applicable, 29.8%.

I feel more comfortable talking/communicating about sex:, No change, 6.0%, a little, 9.5%, some, 19.4%, a lot, 42.2%, not applicable, 22.9%.

I have worked harder to be sure I have a partner's consent with anything sexual:, No change, 9.6%, a little, 5.4%, some, 12.4%, a lot, 25.8%, not applicable, 46.8%. Again, some of this is likely about a lack of relationships. At the same time, this answer is a concern because we find many people's ideas of when consent is needed and what doing consent well entails are often problematic or one-sided.

My confidence/assertiveness has improved:, No change, 9.8%, a little, 14.3%, some, 21.9%, a lot, 29.8%, not applicable, 24.2%.

I feel better about my sexual identity:, No change, 7.9%, a little, 9.8%, some, 19.1%, a lot, 34.7%, not applicable, 28.5%.

I feel better about my body:, No change, 10.8%, a little, 13.5%, some, 20.7%, a lot, 29.5%, not applicable, 25.5%

I have come out (w/orientation or gender identity):, No change, 17.8%, a little, 6.6%, some, 6.1%, a lot, 8.2%, not applicable, 61.3%.

I feel stronger in healing from sexual abuse or assault:, No change, 11.5%, a little, 4.0%, some, 6.1%, a lot, 8.2%, not applicable, 70.2%. While we see a high number of users who have survived sexual abuse or assault coming to us for information, help and support, the majority of our users have not been sexually abused or assaulted.

I have recognized areas in my life/relationships I could improve/ where I want to make positive changes:, No change, 8.6%, a little, 12.3%, some, 9.2%, a lot, 29.0%, not applicable, 30.9%.

If in school, my grades have improved:, No change, 22.9%, a little, 5.2%, some, 7.2%, a lot, 6.3%, not applicable, 58.4% While many of our users are still in school, our general sense is that the majority tend to already be very high-achieving.

Here's a taste of some of the comments (including a couple which support why automatically associating positive changes to use of Scarleteen would have been problematic):

• I think I can work on asking someone out now.
• Your texting service helped me talk about my past abuse in real time; made me feel important and listened to
• I feel more comfortable around my girlfriend.
• I have decided that I am interested in undertaking academic work in the field of sex & relationships for people with mental health support needs.
• I'm just guessing - but these are areas where my life improved thanks to educational resources and mentors like these...
• I feel more positive about sex, rather than the negative opinion my parents hold and forced on me
• I answered a lot a N/A because I have never had sex.
• I feel I have a reliable and accurate place to refer my 14-year-old when he has questions he doesn't want to discuss with me or his father.
• I now PLAN to get tested :)
• I feel better about my gender identity
• I think Scarleteen is great but I can't give you guys credit for the positive changes in my life.
• I started reading scarleteen after I had dealt with a lot of my stuff, and after being employed as a sexual health/harm reduction educator. It hasn't changed a lot of these areas of my life, hence the n/a's, but is incredibly helpful in my work
• [improvements are] not just because of this site, but also by immersing myself in the sexpositive community
• Knowing I'm not alone.
• I was damn good at most of these before I started using Scarleteen (if I do say so myself).
• Communication with my daughter about sexual issues.
• I feel like I can be myself (generally and sexually) because I know I have support from people like me
• Reassured.
• Since being aware of my sexuality I've been visiting this website- so i can't tell you if you've improved me. but i can tell you i turned out pretty okay.
• I have learned more about sex and everything that comes with it. Thank you!
• I know how to help my friends with their own questions about sex
• My understanding of the issues younger people are facing.
• My knowledge of the complexity involved in the many facets of sexuality
• Scarleteen has given me a better understanding of sexuality and the role it plays in our lives
• I learned things that had made me nervous before, and now don't feel like a minority or like something was wrong with me. thank you.
• Have not had sex, but this has really opened my eyes to wait
• I feel much more confident offering advice to friends who are unsure of sexual issues.
• I feel I have somewhere to look for trustworthy information.
• Realize what can and cannot get me pregnant
• I feel more confident in representing myself and being myself as a woman
• I have learned many things I did know know about my body. It's like a health class, but 10 times better and more informative.
• I am more confident in my ability to raise my daughters with healthy attitudes about their bodies and sexuality.
• Thinking about what I've read on Scarleteen reminds me that there are people able to give so much acceptance and support to others. Gives me motivation to be one of those people.
• I am being abused less
• This site gives me hope!

So, where do we think either we're probably doing a good job for our users, or where are they are experiencing improvements already? With self-confidence issues, healthy relationships, body image and awareness, empowerment around making one's own best sexual choices, sexual communication, and sexual or gender identity. This is all great news for our users, whatever role we have played in these outcomes. We intend to keep building on these positives with our content and current approach.

Where do we think we need to work harder, rethink approaches and start trying some new ones, or create more content that addresses certain needs? While we've a great deal of content on safer sex, testing and contraception already, it seems we could stand to have more, and to try some new approaches in those departments. In those areas, it seems like we also need to be doing more to help users feel confident communicating with partners about these express issues, such as by asking for or about STI testing with partners. We've already launched the Find-a-Doc database to help users with access issues that present barriers to them in getting sexual healthcare, but we can certainly pair that with more content about why and how to seek out that care, and how to feel better about utilizing it. We already have a good deal of content on consent, but only one piece that focuses solely on consent, and it seems creating some more content to support it could benefit our users.

The really good news is that if the positives have to do at all with what we do, then we already have some excellent foundation to build on when it comes to working on what we can do to help current users improve their lives in those other areas, where positive change was less reported. For those where a lot of those things were N/A, we also have the opportunity to expand and improve our content and approach before they get to a point in their lives where these issues are something they need to address and deal with. Our goal for those users is to work on those improvements to prepare them well for those issues if and when they do become personally relevant to them.

As with the previous set of data, we're very open to your feelings, thoughts and ideas around these findings. Stay tuned for the last bit of information we have from this survey, from the general comments section, and then my overall perceptions and thoughts about the study findings, including some intersections of the data I think are important to look at.