Inclusive Illustrations: Reproductive Anatomy

There is always this one moment. I’m in class, teaching a bunch of 4th and 5th graders about puberty. After covering the intellectual, social and emotional changes, I transition to the physical changes, staring with the usual cast of characters: height and weight gain, acne, body odor, etc. Then we move into reproductive anatomy. I begin this section by giving students a head’s up that in order to talk about what body parts do, I need to show them body parts. Onto the screen, I bring up a warm up illustration—one that I drew to the best of my ability (think grade-school ability). 

Rachel’s artistic ability obviously arrested in the third grade (and I hope that comment does not offend any third graders)!

It’s purpose is to give the kids a chuckle. After a good laugh, we all agree that we can handle illustrations of the human body. We all let out a collective sigh of relief, and the kids are ready to forge ahead. 

But then comes THE moment. The moment when I show them graphics that are more, well…graphic. The student’s eyes go wide, their nostrils shrivel up on one side, and their lips pinch tight. Many look down and away, and I can hear them mutter, “No no no.”  These illustrations? They never agreed to these. 

And I get it. 

Until recently, I had nothing remotely approachable in my anatomy illustration toolbox. Almost every illustration that I have ever seen used for sex ed, was . . . well, I hate to say it . . . but . . . eeew. And I’m a person who finds the human body amazing and beautiful and I don’t shy away easily. But what exists out there has tons of squiggly, distracting lines, blurry demarcations between one organ and another, and an overwhelming amount of body parts, arrows and labels. It’s just a lot to take in, especially for ten, eleven, twelve year olds. They just don’t want to engage with these kinds of graphics. They spend their brain energy pushing them away, rather than relaxing into curiosity.

So, it was time to change all that. I got together with two talents—Dr. Ann Scott (OB/GYN) and Mel Latthitham (graphic designer). We gathered everything that was already out there, scoured the internet, flipped through text books, and reviewed medical journals. We discussed what worked and what didn’t and what we wanted our graphics to accomplish. Mel made a few drafts and I shared them with students, sex ed teachers and other professionals. Mel, Ann and I chewed on the feedback, and Mel incorporated the suggestions. Round and round we went, until voilà! Lone and behold, we now have an amazing set of medically accurate (though stylized), approachable, digestible illustrations of reproductive anatomy that work for learners of all ages. 

Stylized, medically accurate human anatomy that kids can handle.

What we especially love about the graphics is that each reproductive system is drawn like a maze. Students can follow the exact path egg and sperm have to take, in order to create a pregnancy. There are no escape routes or alternative paths, and thus no confusion as to where they need to go to make baby-making work. 

We are also thrilled that the illustrations show numerous body shapes and sizes, as well as a variety of pubic hair textures. We even had fun with the various belly buttons. Just as an FYI - I never knew how weird those things were, until I spent a couple days looking at photographs of them. The illustrations can be printed in black and white, or in a variety of skin colors: black, brown, bronze, pink, freckled, etc. Educators can also modify the skin tones of the graphics to match those of their family or community. 

The graphics are available for free on the website—though we just know that you’ll want to buy our graphic designer a cup of coffee as a show of gratitude for her work. If you need other file formats or modifications of the existing illustrations, please reach out. We hope that teachers, mentors, parents, and caregivers have a lot of fun incorporating our graphics into their discussions. 

And, please do check back. Our lessons on human reproduction for 5th, 7th and high school - that use these very same graphics, are being formatted as we speak, and will hopefully be available any day now.