Growing up, Alexa Lesperance saw low youth attendance at sexual health education events in her Naotkamegwanning First Nation in northwestern Ontario. High rates of sexually transmitted diseases and infections, suicides and teen pregnancy characterize some Indigenous communities but, Lesperance discovered, there's often little to no engaging education to address the problem.

So at just 17 years old, she hatched a plan and, with the Native Youth Sexual Health Network behind her, she made sex education sexy. And so far, it's been the most popular project the Network has seen.

Lesperance's Sexy Health Carnival has been to over 30 Indigenous communities and draws anywhere from 80 to 1,200 people.

At a carnival in Naotkamegwanning First Nation, a young Anishinaabe mom pushes a stroller through a gymnasium packed with tables cloaked in bright cloths and giant colorful displays behind them. Teens around her giggle as they compete for prizes. She's smiling as she makes her way to a booth that offers games and space for little ones while the parents walk freely around. Then she heads over to a red display and a sign posing the question, "How can you protect yourself?" Underneath that is another sign reading, "Our culture is strong; break the silence, talk about HIV."

"Learning should be pleasurable. It's not just Sexual Health 101, like 'This is how you put on a condom,'" Lesperance says from Ottawa, where she attends Carleton University with the goal of attending medical school to become a health practitioner providing culturally safe care for her nation.

For young people who have gone through standard sex ed in high school, where putting a condom on a banana is boilerplate, the Sexy Health Carnival is a game changer. It may look like just a lively trade expo of sorts to adults looking in, but its engaging questions and disarming activities make it magnetic to youth.

An Indigenous teen throws a dart at a wall of balloons and when a red one pops, a card inside is revealed with a question he must answer – "True or false, is oral sex risk free?" Another balloon bursts, revealing another question – "Can you get HIV from a toilet seat?" For Alexa, it is all part of making awkward and uncomfortable subjects more approachable, and fun. Read more via Globe and Mail