Hello, New York City: What's the Real Deal? Contest Comes to Your City

The What's the Real Deal? Contest in New York City has begun. Young people between the ages of 12 – 22, living in NYC's five boroughs, are invited to share their thoughts, ideas and stories on issues around relationships and making decisions about sexual responsibility. Scenarios has added a new element to the What's the Real Deal? program. While we still want youth to think about sexuality and all that the term implies (including how youth think and feel about themselves, how they carry themselves in the world, how they identify as a male or female), we also want youth to pay more attention to how drugs and alcohol play a role in decision-making and sexuality.

Community educators, high school and middle school teachers, and parents…get your youth involved! This is the perfect opportunity to get kids thinking, talking and writing about the important life decisions they face each day. Educators can download a Teachers Guide and Student brochure from the Scenarios USA web site or call us at 866.414.1044 to be sent a complimentary Contest Kit with the Guide, brochures and more goodies. The Contest deadline is May 5, 2004. Click here for the Contest Guidelines.

New! Featured Film of the Month: Lipstick

Did you ever think you would be watching a Scenarios USA film in Bilbao, Spain or on the smaller islands of the Philippines? With Lipstick circulating the Film Festival circuit like wildfire, youth, parents and film festival attendees around the world have had the opportunity to see the film.

Lipstick is also used in schools and community groups in 40 States across the country. It was approved for distribution by the NYC Board of Education, is one of the top ten films of the year, according to the American Library Association, and is listed as a Recommended Resource by the Educational Media Review Online, Safe Schools Coalition and GLSEN. It is also used by the acclaimed Network for Family Life Education as a training tool for Sexual Health Educators and has aired on Showtime and dozens of public access stations across the country.

Lipstick is the story of four best friends who talk about prom, graduation, sports, boys... and girls. Emily, the central character, "comes out" to her best friends and the story unfolds as we witness her friends' varying reactions.

The film is an honest look at friendship and the complexities one faces in understanding and accepting difference. It is wonderful and we would recommend it for every high school working on prejudice reduction and anti-harassment efforts!!!
-Safe Schools Coalition

South Texas and Miami What's the Real Deal? Contest Update

We're excited to announce that we received an overwhelming number of script submissions from youth in Miami and south Texas. 433 youth submitted 234 scripts. This means that 433 young people discussed sexuality and sexual responsibility with their peers and the adults in their lives. Based on the numbers, you can see that there was an enormous amount of collaboration among the scripts writers.

Here are some interesting stats on the submissions:

• 283 girls and 151 boys participated
• 24 cities in 2 states were involved
• Youth between the ages of 12-19 years old submitted scripts. 16 years old was the average age of participants.

story and script submissions have been read by over 300 sexual health educators, media professionals, teachers and youth from all over the country. The 12 finalists will be read and discussed by a Selection Committee comprised of Directors Jamie Babbit (But I'm a Cheerleader) and Patricia Cardoso (Real Women Have Curves), past Scenarios teen winners from Miami, Orlando and south Texas and educators and community leaders from Miami and south Texas. As a group, they will choose the two stories that will become the next Scenarios films. The Contest finalists and the winners will be announced the week of February 9th.

Scenarios has partnered with Columbia University's Center for Gender, Sexuality and Health to analyze the content in the scripts and to better understand what today's youth find important when talking about relationships and sexual responsibility.