Olentangy Liberty High School sophomores William Wang, Samadhi Liyanapathirana, Luke McFarlane, and Abby Rohl started their HOSA Community Awareness Campaign called Mature Minds back in October to raise awareness around the lack of proper education regarding puberty, as well as to destigmatize the discrepancies between male and female puberty. HOSA – Future Health Professionals is an international career and technical student organization with a mission to empower high school students to become leaders in the global health community through education, collaboration and experience. With 92 events, each event has three to four stages of competition: districts, regionals, states and international.
When each team member was asked why they chose to bring awareness to insufficient puberty education in schools, Wang answered, “After doing HOSA last year, we felt like we needed a more unique topic. Last year, we chose mental health, which is obviously an important topic, but many other groups also chose this topic, so we didn’t stand out. So for this year, we decided to choose a more underrepresented issue, which we deemed to be puberty.”
McFarlane added, “From personal experience, we felt that a lot of aspects of puberty weren’t talked enough about. It’s only brought up in elementary school during ‘The Talk.’ Here, I remember asking what the adjacent room (with girls) was learning about, and being shushed. I learned what a period was because I have two sisters, and I can’t imagine why no one explained what a period was to me in school. There also aren’t a lot of options to learn more about the “taboo” parts of puberty in middle school or high school. There are some classes here and there, but nothing that gives a well-rounded and overarching view of it. Our access to a comprehensive view of periods, STDs … just real-life stuff … feels restricted, which is what Mature Minds aims to combat.”
As a way to promote their topic, they created daily Instagram posts and TikToks which currently totals up to approximately 4,000 views. Later this month, the team has plans to organize a menstrual product drive, publish a book relating to their cause on Amazon, work with established professionals to make informational seminars, and release merchandise and stickers before regionals on Jan. 19 at Ohio Hi-Point Career Center.
With this tight deadline, there have been some issues/challenges these four have faced. Liyanapathira said, “Because of school, harder classes, sports, and other things, it’s been difficult being hyper-focused on the campaign earlier on. However, as we close in on the regional competition this month, states in March, and internationals in June, we have made amazing progress, and all of us are working hard.”
Rohl added, “We really hope to accomplish all our planned events before regionals, so we can move on to states, and hopefully internationals. Besides moving on, we want more time to spread this important topic in our community, as well as destigmatize and bring more awareness to this issue.”
Wang concluded, “If you are interested in learning more about our campaign, please check out our campaign on Instagram and Tiktok. By doing so, you can see and support our future events and goals.”
This article was written by William Wang and Shreyas Gorthy, Olentangy Liberty High School students who are members of Powell Youth Council, a 15-student-governed nonprofit organization recognized and partnered with the Powell government that Wang created in March of 2022. Powell Youth Council’s purpose is to give a voice and power to the youth of Powell in local decisions and projects, show how local leaders create projects and decisions, and motivate the youth to help their community.
