Kerry Washington is on a mission to improve sex education: ‘People are being left to deal with these issues on their own’

Actress Kerry Washington wants to educate people about sex and reproductive well-being. Washington’s partnership with Winx Health, a Generation Z sexual and vaginal health brand, gives her a space to spread the word. Sex education is a lifelong passion, which he continues as an advisor and brand investor.

“When I was a teenager, I started working in a theater and education program that did sex education in high schools and community centers,” the Scandal actress told PEOPLE. “We wrote these skits about health and wellness, safer sex, homosexuality and abortion, and human trafficking in that space has been important to me for a long time.”

Washington believes that spreading details about reproductive health is especially essential immediately due to the various changes regarding reproductive health laws within the country. In the previous couple of years, statewide abortion bans have been implemented after the overturning of Roe Vs. Wade in 2022, which might end federal abortion rights.

“It’s weird in the meanwhile. “It’s like – I wouldn’t say I’m working with a company to be an activist, but just being in the sexual health space seems like a radical thing to do right now because of the attacks on reproductive rights and the attacks on education,” Washington said.

“I actually need to step up this essential work [Winx] what she’s doing around women’s health education and just ensuring people are informed,” she continued. The ability to truly know ourselves and deal with ourselves allows us to love ourselves and live conscious lives of selection as women.

In addition to educating women about reproductive health, Washington wants to address one other related issue: voting. She believes that much of the laws will be modified if the fitting candidates are elected in November.

The actress openly said that on the age of twenty she became a victim of sexual abuse and abortion, which is why she speaks out from her own experience. In her 2023 memoir, she also talked about how her parents’ sexual experiences influenced her.

“My memoir is in many ways about the secrets of my mother’s sexual well-being and my parents’ shame about their journey into parenthood and how that affected our family life,” she said. “And so I think, as I explored these topics about how we relate to our bodies, how we keep secrets about our bodies, our sexuality, our sexual health, my dad keeping secrets about his sexual health, my mom keeping secrets about her and her health in general.”

In the book, Washington reveals her experience when she came upon her dad was not her biological father.

“I think we really are as sick as our secrets,” Washington added. “So I feel for me this space of sex education is also about shaking off shame in order that we are able to live with more freedom and a sense of liberation in our on a regular basis lives, really destigmatizing health and sexuality. “