collected
Nonfiction · Comics & Graphic Novels · Health & Medicine · Social Science
About 4 h 45 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 10 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan use conversations between young people to answer questions about sex, bodies and relationships. Short chapters cover consent, gender identity, anatomy, masturbation, contraception and STI prevention, alongside jealousy, rejection and maintaining friendships while dating. The guide includes trans and intersex anatomy and explains how to communicate boundaries and recognize unhealthy behavior.
Frank and conversational, this YA nonfiction comic treats awkward questions as ordinary subjects for discussion. Some pages are dense with explanation, and the illustrations are explicit: drawings show sexual anatomy and activity as part of the practical instruction.
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
Young people with questions about sex, bodies and relationships. The YA nonfiction comic uses conversations between young people to explain subjects including consent, gender identity, jealousy and rejection, treating awkward questions as ordinary things to discuss.
Strong sexual content includes explicit drawings of sexual anatomy and activity as part of practical instruction. The coverage includes trans and intersex anatomy, masturbation, contraception and STI prevention, with a frank, conversational approach.
Yes, it explains how to communicate boundaries, recognize unhealthy behavior and maintain friendships while dating. Short chapters also address jealousy and rejection, placing relationship guidance alongside information about bodies and sexual health.
Not really, the language is direct and conversational, with explanations delivered through dialogue and short chapters. Some pages are dense with information, so the comic format still calls for close attention to the explanations.
240 pages in the Random House Graphic 2021 paperback edition.
Random House Graphic · 2021 · Paperback. ISBN 9781984893147.
About 4 hours 45 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 240-page Random House Graphic edition. Dense books can take longer.
Erika Moen is a cartoonist whose work moves from candid autobiography in DAR! to illustrated education about sex, bodies, gender, and relationships. Her conversational drawings and humor replace clinical distance with direct visual explanation, while research and specialist review support the practical guidance. In Let’s Talk About It, co-created with Matthew Nolan, compact question-led sections follow recurring teenagers through realistic conversations rather than prescribing a single course of action. The book gives communication, consent, boundaries, rejection, conflict, and repair as much attention as anatomy and risk. Its characters and illustrations encompass varied bodies, identities, sexualities, preferences, and levels of interest.
Matthew Nolan is a comics writer, editor, and colorist whose sex-education work is closely collaborative. He co-created the adult webcomic Oh Joy Sex Toy with Erika Moen and helped adapt their sex-positive approach for teenagers in Let’s Talk About It. For that book, Nolan handled most of the initial scripting and later coloring, while Moen revised and inked the material and other collaborators contributed to its development. Chapters grew from questions submitted by teenagers. Each begins with a fictional young person facing a recognizable problem, pauses for illustrated explanation, and returns to the situation. The direct, non-clinical writing treats consent, boundaries, rejection, abuse, awkwardness, conflict, and repair as matters of communication as well as sexual health.
