​ABOUT

Picture
Silvia Young is Latina, feminist writer, organizer, nonprofit founder, and public relations consultant.

Her published works explores gender bias and discrimination. She is an expert in creating communications to shine a spotlight and drive conversations.  Raised in the uprising of 1970s/80s South London, Young saw first-hand systemic abuses, and how the arts and education, as a movement, can create awareness and inclusion. This profound experience shaped her worldview, and showed her the parallels facing oppressed communities as she navigated her own silenced adversity and cage of societal constructs

 Living in the U.S. since the mid 80s, Young's hope for a better tomorrow and a more compassionate, tolerant world never faded, she persisted. Her career in public relations has earned her several awards from the Public Relations Society of America. 

Published Works​In 2017, Silvia founded FemTruth™,  a catalog of published works to flip the script and take back the narrative as an important step toward systemic change. This collection includes a play, poetry, memoir, anthology, children’s illustration book, campaigns like 31 FemTruths, presentations, and more, where Silvia explores these themes. She has also been asked to byline articles in student-led, University publications like her OpEd ‘Medical Gaslighting Epidemic in Women’s Health, Myths of Period Pain Requires Academic Discussion’ for the University of California, Berkeley’s The Daily Californian.


​Nonprofit Founder
Through GASLIT, A 3-Act Play, which debuted on October 30, 2018, at the University of California, Davis, Silvia provides intentional space to normalize conversations in schools and communities with artistic performances.​ In 2021 Silvia founded the non-profit FemTruth Youth, to reimagine youth’s agency in stigmatized topics like menstruation and mental health, bringing her play to more campuses and communities.

Organizer
Also in 2021, the City and County of San Francisco, California, recognized September as FemTruth Youth Women’s Health Awareness Month. ​A seasoned organizer in California policy including Menstrual and Gender Equity, Silvia is currently seeking legislative support for her proposed bill ‘Empower Pupils Women’s Health Training.’
​Young is invited to speak at campuses including but not limited to Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Davis, University of California, Santa Barbara, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, San Jose State University, and San Francisco State University; and organizations including but not limited to the National Organization for Women's (NOW) conference, both state and national, Women's March Foundation, International Women's Day, collegiate and feminist clubs, and community groups. Her work has led her to be quoted, interviewed and photographed on matters of social justice, women's health and intersectional human rights. In 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 Young was nominated for Patient Leader and Child Educator WEGO Health Awards, and 2018 CA-NOW's Gender Equity Awards. In 2022, Silvia’s body of work from storytelling to policy, was chosen as this year’s Women’s History Month honoree by the student leadership of a Bay Area Middle School.

She lives in California with her husband, sons, and Boston Terriers. She is a survivor of Twenty-five years medical gaslighting finally leading her to an endometriosis diagnosis, and related infertility, C-PTSD, and disability. 






​
Disclaimer: Assigned female at birth (AFAB), trans, and non-binary inclusive. Use of terms related to ‘fem’, ‘female’, ‘girls’,  ‘women’ or ‘women’s health’ used herein i.e., in referential citations, is intended only as a theoretical and historic framework. Such use is not intended to trivialize any and all lived experiences trying to access healthcare in a two-gendered system, and the many intersections facing added discrimination, including but not limited to ethnicity, race, culture, size, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, disabilities, and socioeconomic bias.