Behind The Scenes: "Teen Shan"

When the Crash Course team embarked on making a Sex Ed series, we spent a lot of time talking about the bad Sex Ed we were subjected to as teens. For those of us who got Sex Ed at all, it was some combination of uninformative, embarrassing, and just plain dull. And across the board, it was impersonal.  

We wanted to do things differently. A lot differently. Part of that was in our curriculum (informative! fun!), and part was in Shan’s host performance: As one team member said after watching a screener, “I want Shan to have all my embarrassing conversations for me.” But the last piece of the puzzle? Meet Teen Shan. 

Illustrations by Complexly Animation Designer Trevor Jones 

We toyed with the idea of a couple different characters. Should it be a Ted Lasso–like gym teacher who delivers well-meaning but cheesy platitudes? Maybe a talking banana who’s really sad that it’s not being used for a condom demonstration?  

Eventually, we drew inspiration from a story Shan told us — about how, at 19, tired of not getting real sex education, she took the matter into her own hands with the help of a library card. We loved the inquisitive nature of this young Shan and wanted to bring her to life to help show how misconceptions can give way to clarity. Luckily, we have a brand new, in-house animation team who was up to the task. And voilà: a new Crash Course character is born.

Are you watching Crash Course: Sex Ed? What was your sex ed experience like? Tell us in the comments, and as always, thank you for your support of Crash Course!