“I love the art of storytelling, I love that people see themselves a little more clearly with everything that I do: be that through my writing, videos or photography.”
Here is the full list (just to make you feel truly lazy): Shannon Teresa Boodram is a freelance writer and a freelance photographer and the proprietor of an online network for inspirational women and a youth worker and a tv presenter and the editor of a book and a kick ass go-getter.
This woman is changing the way young people are educated about sex and was recently debating the sex education issue on a Canadian news channel.
Never afraid to voice her opinion, she will call you out (hilariously as well) when you're doing something stupid, and even call herself out too if needs be...
Shannon has interviewed a whole host of people from Natasha Beddingfield to beanie man and now we interview her, finding out all about her book, LAID, and even getting some writing advice!
LAID is a collection of first hand narratives form young people aged 18-25 across America, on different sexual experiences. This is a new kind of sex ed. / peer education replacing cringing as teachers attempt to talk about sex in the least informative and most embarrassing (for everyone involved) way possible, "No matter what your sexual orientation, sexual experience or age (as long as you're over 14) is, I promise you will relate to at least one story in LAID and learn something new from each and every one while being too damn entertained to notice."
Bad sex in my teens. More accurately a bad sexual image and a misguided understanding of what my sexuality was all about. It just sucked that I was feeling so emotionally damaged and not getting any big O's by trying to be that carefree sexual vixen that my generation told me was the coolest thing to be. I just wanted to better understand my own sexuality and what role it was supposed to play in my life while helping others to do the same.
What’s your favorite part of it?
I really like “Chapter 2: And Then I Saw Stars” because too often, positive sexual experiences are omitted out of teen sex ed in fear that it will encourage kids to have sex. I don't get why the focus of sex ed is to STOP kids from acknowledging their sexuality rather than to encourage them to make healthy sexual choices that make your life better. I think the better your understanding is of what a positive sex life looks and feels like, the better chance you have of attaining it for yourself.
What do you hope people to feel when they read LAID?
Empathy not sympathy! I want people to see themselves in every story and start thinking about why the person did what they did and what they themselves would have done differently. If you look at every story like this could be me, you're going to so much more out of reading LAID.
Why is your work so focused on young people?
The trick to being a good writer is, write what you know and care about.
What exciting stuff do you have coming up in your “360 journalism” career?
New book, fall back-to-school LAID tour in NY, Toronto and LA (maybe Miami) and a job at The Oprah Winfrey Network (I actually have no right to assume this is going to happen but I figure if I keep saying it enough it's bound to come true).
What were the most important parts of your path to writing as a career?
I think studying print journalism helped me become a storyteller and it showed people that I was serious about my craft, it also helped me get my first full-time journalism job (one that I left after my book got signed).
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
If you want to be a writer: read and write dammit! I can tell when a writer doesn't read because it comes across as someone trying to write (you know the type - "the floorboards were aesthetically pleasing to anyone's eyes who were wise enough to glance down at their divine chestnut stain"). To be a good writer you have to be a good communicator who understands what details people need and the ones you need not bother with. There is no better way to figure this out than by reading other people's work to observe which parts you tend to skip over and which you happily re-read. I always have a book that I am currently reading and an audio book that I am listening to. Right now it's The Pickup by Nadine Gordime and Daddy's Girl by Lisa Scottoline on audio (I don't like The Pickup but this is my third Scottoline book and this one is pretty good).
So you love words?
If I hear a word I like, I roll it over in my tongue and let my eyes roll back with it (like lascivious or tranquillita). When I look at license plates I always rearrange the letters to see what I can get, I love word games and I never say the phrase "words can't describe" because that's a damn lie - there is a word for everything!
Are there any writers who have inspired you?
Eric Jerome Dickey, Dan Brown, Iris Jacob, Anne Tyler, Josey Voguels, Connie Briscoe and Jackie Collins. More if I really thought about it but to be honest I go to the library and choose a book by its cover so there are a lot of great books that I've read where I don't remember the authors name at all.
What do you love the most about what you do?
I love the art of storytelling, I love that people see themselves a little more clearly with everything that I do: be that through my writing, videos or photography.
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