Writer, Lipstick (2002 National West Contest Winner)

"When we were trying to find a location to film, people didn’t want to do it because they didn’t want to have any part of Planned Parenthood so that was already controversial, and then on top of that, to make a movie about people who were gay, the community wasn’t really encouraging… everyone else was really supportive and happy for us."

- Emily Alvarez

Emily Alvarez wrote Lipstick with Simone Lance, Roxanna Garcia, Sophia Tavernakis and Dan Barnard as peer educators for Planned Parenthood in Orange County, CA. Roxy and her fellow peer educators felt that a lot of sex health education and awareness was geared towards heterosexual youth, while issues especially affecting gay and lesbian teens such as coming out and peer acceptance remained relatively unexplored. The young writers decided to tackle these subjects head-on in Lipstick, a bold decision that earned them the valuable experience of successfully overcoming community challenges to the film’s content.

Emily grew up in Orange County and worked for several years with the local police department as well as Planned Parenthood. It was Emily’s college that saved the production of Lipstick by agreeing to let it be filmed on campus. Though she is now primarily focused on her new family, Emily looks forward to continuing to make a difference for social justice.

Contact

• Email: info@scenariosusa.org
• Phone: (866) 414 1044

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