Joanna Williams
I also have a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from the University of Sydney
- Award:Joan Kirner Young and Emerging Women Leader (Women's Health)Awarding Organization:Office of Women, Victorian GovernmentDate Awarded:October 20, 2018
- Award:Business, Community and Leadership ScholarAwarding Organization:Layne Beachley Aim for the Stars FoundationDate Awarded:June 30, 2018

At AIDS 2014, I was the youngest rapporteur of the conference reporting on Youth Programmes Team, focusing on giving a platform to the lived experience of young people.
This experience led to my involvement in establishing and leading a charity called Bits and Bods (BB), a web series for teen girls and gender diverse teens that talks about sex, bodies and all the awkward bits in between. I've produced 65 hours of footage of 35 young people (from different experiences, identities and backgrounds) talking about their experiences and the advice they wished they had. Since in 2018, I've received $33,000 through philanthropic funding to create and distribute our first seven episodes. These episodes, which will be freely available on the internet, will be released in August 2019.
I was 16, I opened a book on family planning in Indonesia and ended up writing my 6000 words senior paper on adolescent female sexuality!
However, it wasn't until AIDS 2014 and my sexual assault in 2015 that I realised the importance of having lived experience at the center of family planning and sexual health. In 2016, I became involved in BB so that no one felt as alone or abnormal as I did. In 2018, I left my public service job to run BB in an unpaid capacity (while working for IPPF).
I gave keynote at the 2018 Australian Adolescent Health Conference about my experience leading BB and how organizations can better support young people to drive change. I teach into the University of Melbourne MPH course to support the development of young leaders, and recently supported a student to be recruited as FPAA's youth representative.
I am also a founding member of a Victorian-based advocacy group that aims to improve sexual health and family planning access.
I would use the networks and platform provided through 120 under 40 to collaborate with individuals and organisations on their work on comprehensive sexuality education. Having worked with IPPF, I know there is a strong demand for the resources that we have developed.
The $1000 grant would be used for paid social media distribution of BB's 'Doing It' episode. This will help our content reach the Australian young people that most need them, especially those in rural and regional locations.

