Most teens in Germany list parents as their most important resource for information about sex and relationships, according to a 2021 report from the Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung (BZgA). Sexual education is compulsory in Germany, but conversations at home are still clearly very important, even if they’re almost always awkward. But couldn't they be just a little less awkward?
That question led Berlin-based publishing house Polar Embassy to approach sex educators at Other Nature to put together a team that included parents, psychotherapy practitioners, sex toy designers, and workshop facilitators to see what they could develop. The result of their collaboration is a card deck with 100 questions designed to make it easier for teenagers and their families to discuss topics like Bodies, Relationships, Gender & Identity, Safer Sex & STIs, Desire & Pleasure, Culture & Media (& porn), and Communication & Consent.
To celebrate, Polar Embassy and Other Nature are hosting a launch party on 14 November to introduce the deck, share their process writing and testing, and answer audience questions. We’d love to see you there!
Event Details
Thursday, 14 November | 18:00-20:00 | Other Nature, Yorckstraße 75, 10965 Berlin
18:00 - Light snacks and drinks served
19:00 - (In English) - Introduction of the Polar Embassy and Other Nature teams who developed the questions. They will present the deck, speak about the writing and testing process, and answer audience questions.
19:30 - Raffle for a few goodies
20:00 - End
Please note: This event is 18+. The question set was designed for families with teenagers 14+, but this event is hosted in a space that is not appropriate for those under 18 years of age.
More about A Little Less Peinlich:
Each deck contains 50 cards with a question on each side: one for a teenager to ask their caregiver, and one for the caregiver to ask back. Of course, players are not expected to know all the answers, or even want to answer every question. "I don't know" and "I don't want to answer that" are valid answers that the questions are designed to help normalise. The deck is meant to help caregivers model how to communicate about boundaries, and help show young people how to look up reliable information about sex and relationships.
The first print run of the boxed question set is in German, but to make the question set as accessible as possible, print-at-home digital versions are available in English, German, and Russian, with Turkish, French, and Spanish translations already on the way.
The questions were tested with families with teenagers and proofread by a family therapist.
The decks were produced by Gugler Kommunikationshaus in Austria with a pollution footprint of 0,15 kg CO2e per deck, for which 110% is offset via climate protection measures onsite and reforestation projects in the Global South. More about our supply chain here.