First of all we would like to thank all the young women who pushed their personal boundaries and dug deep to write honestly and openly about their experiences, ideas, and feelings, and committed their time to make this book happen.
The original writers: Suvi Siu, Emma Brown, Annie Grainger, Chi Nguyen, Chauntae Walls, Hilary Quigley, Kristina Pelletier, Rebecca Hodgson-Dewitt. You have no idea how great what you started has become: you have reached so many people's minds and hearts.
The revisers: Imogen Birchard, Corrine Aberdeen, Emily Trinh for taking over the early stages of revisions. Your flare was essential to putting forward a great book.
Outreach: Cyesha Ford and Azia Negru-Harsman who were responsible for getting this valuable information to those young women living in rural Ontario.
We would like to thank Jessica Harrod and Kate Scowen for listening to the concerns of the young women in the Youth Arcade, seeing the potential, and finding resources to make the project happen.
A big thanks to The City of Toronto Public Health who helped fund this project and supported it throughout the years of development by providing valuable information and expertise.
Throughout the process of research and writing this book we had tremen- dous support from community professionals who gave their time and effort to ensure that this book was factually correct without losing the voices of the young women who wrote it. All the professionals who assisted us in the process were chosen because of their unique approach with youth, their open-mindedness, and their ability to keep information accessible and engaging.
A big thank-you to all the young women who hang out in the Youth Arcade who voiced their opinions, their experience, and their criticism in order to have the material in this book be applicable to diverse youth cultures.
A big thanks to David Wichman, who corresponded with us almost daily for months to get this book into publishing form. Thanks for your patience!
A large thanks to all the Youth Arcade staff at St. Stephen's Community House over the last few years who supported and hyped up this book to everyone everywhere, and for being so intensely committed to our youth community and the issues youth face.
Last but not least, a sincere thank-you to St. Stephen's Community House (Liane Regendanz, Bill Sinclair, and our dedicated Board of Directors), for their consistent innovation, their commitment to young people, and their courage to take risks within programming in order to best serve the members of our community.
Bridget Sinclair, Youth Community Worker Marlon Merraro, Manager, Youth Services St. Stephen's Community House
Annick Press Acknowledgments
Annick Press would like to thank the following individuals for reviewing the manuscript and offering their professional input:
Kym Halliday, RN, CCRN, SANE-A (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner), New Mexico
Karen Leslie, Karen Leslie, MD, FRCPC, Staff Paediatrician, Division of Adolescent Medicine, Associate Professor of Paediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children and The University of Toronto
Sally O'Neill, RN, M.Sc. Director of Healthy Body Talk