Youth face stigma, misinformation, and limited access to affordable, confidential sexual and reproductive healthcare, leading to unintended pregnancies, violence, and poor mental health outcomes.
StandWeSpeak is an award-winning, youth-led SexTech social venture building digital public infrastructure for sexual and reproductive health for Millennials and Gen Z.
I (Priyal Agrawal, the founder of StandWeSpeak) am a dating violence survivor. At 21, I gathered the courage to leave a five-year abusive relationship. Walking away was only the beginning; it took me two additional years of professional therapy and support to recover from the trauma I had endured. During that time, I learned about my 19-year-old friend who was denied reproductive healthcare because she was unmarried and forced to resort to unsafe abortion practices (consuming a dozen contraceptive pills), which severely impacted her physical and mental health.
What I realized was devastating: these were not isolated incidents. They were systemic failures. Every day, millions face violence, stigma, medical gatekeeping, and denied bodily autonomy. Sexual and reproductive health is too often controlled by shame, marital status, gender norms, and power structures, not rights.
Recognizing that this crisis was both deeply personal and globally pervasive, I made the unconventional decision to step away from my academic trajectory and build StandWeSpeak, a platform designed to eliminate silence as a barrier to survival.
At the core of StandWeSpeak is Mae, an AI-driven, confidential sexual health chatbot designed to function as a digital frontline health system for young people. Mae provides medically and legally verified, culturally contextualized, and age-appropriate guidance, anonymously and 24/7.
Mae addresses menstruation, contraception, consent, relationships, HIV prevention, gender-based violence, mental health, and legal rights without judgment, moral policing, or stigma. It is curated by global sexual health experts and built on a trauma-informed, gender-inclusive, and sex-positive framework.
Mae is not simply an information tool. It is a digital sexual health ecosystem integrating:
1. Evidence-based SRHR education
2. Direct consultations with healthcare and legal experts
3. Access pathways to menstrual hygiene, contraceptive, and sexual wellness products
4. Curated digital resources and youth-centered media
5. Data-driven insights to inform advocacy and systems change
The platform operates on five structural pillars:
1. Accuracy: Expert-verified, medically and legally sound information
2. Accessibility: 24/7 mobile access across geographies
3. Acceptance: Gender-inclusive, non-judgmental, and culturally sensitive
4. Anonymity: Safe, confidential engagement
5. Affordability: Free access to information and guidance
To date, StandWeSpeak’s digital tools have reached over 1.8 million users across 6+ countries, with tens of thousands of active users monthly. Supported by global institutions including MIT Solve, UNFPA, the government of South Korea, the government of India, and recognized through The Diana Award 2022, the Young Global Changers Award 2024, a TEDx platform, advisory engagement with the World Bank, and speaking roles at the United Nations, we have strengthened our AI capabilities, expanded inclusive content, and built cross-sector partnerships globally.
Beyond technology, StandWeSpeak operates across four interconnected layers:
1. Digital Infrastructure: AI-powered chatbot and scalable ecosystem
2. Early Prevention: Gamified body-safety and consent toolkits for children
3. Community Engagement: Workshops and youth-led stigma-breaking campaigns
4. Systems Influence: Institutional partnerships and data-informed advocacy
StandWeSpeak addresses three structural failures:
1. The Information Failure: replacing misinformation with verified knowledge
2. The Access Failure: providing confidential, real-time support beyond restrictive systems
3. The Confidence Failure: restoring agency and voice to young people
Our long-term vision is to build a world where every person has the freedom, access, and right to make decisions about their body without violence, coercion, or discrimination. A world where bodily autonomy and informed choice are fundamental rights, not conditional privileges.
We are not filling gaps in the system.
We are rebuilding the system so no young person is ever left alone with their questions again.
StandWeSpeak – solution details.pdf