Shannon Boodram

Shannon Boodram is a certified sex educator, dating coach, relationship expert, author, and Youtuber who has a bestselling book and over 60 million YouTube views. 
Shannon noticed at age 19 that there were very limited resources and information available to her about sex. This caused her to research more into the topic, which led to her writing her first book on sex education in 2009, called Laid. Shannon attended the University_of_Toronto and became a sex education counselor through its certification program. From there she went to a school in California to get her associate's degree in sex education. She started her Youtube channel in 2012 after struggling to do traditional media in Los Angeles. She moved to Los Angeles and shot four pilots, which were all rejected. She says that she credits Youtube as the launching pad for everything that followed in her life. She became a certified sexologist in 2015. 
Known as "Shan Boody" by her Youtube community, Boodram has appeared across all the major TV networks as well as The New York Times, Forbes and Time Magazine. She is currently the host of a daily show on Quibi called Sexology with Shan Boodram. Shannon’s career started when she was the host of MTV’s Guide to Sex. Following that, she was the host and executive producer of the Fullscreen series, Your Perfect Date. She then went on to be the host and consulting producer for Facebook Watch’s relationship series, Make Up or Break Up. She is the author of two books: Laid which was a Canadian best-seller, and The Game of Desire which got critical acclaim from TIME, Apple and Refinery29. She has also written articles for Cosmopolitan, Canadian_Broadcasting_Corporation and Teen Vogue, and has been a contributing writer for Freeform. Currently, Boodram is an ambassador for the AIDS_Healthcare_Foundation Healthcare Foundation and WomensHealth.gov, and she is a member of the American Sexual Health Association. 
Boodram's race has played an important part in her career as a sex educator and she says it influences the way she leads conversations around sex. As an educator she draws on her own experiences to move past "faceless facts and numbers" and provide "real stories and real people a space to express themselves". In her work, Boodram has many serious discussions about race, gender, and the Black Lives Matter movement. She says "[In the dating world] there are struggles though for Black women in particular, for Asian men, for anybody in the LGBT community." She believes that "It's important to acknowledge that the start line is not the same for everybody, thus the strategy can't be the same." She includes many discussions in her work about the influence of stereotypes that have been formed in Eurocentrism and white societies, and how they affect intimate relationships. 
Shannon's goal with her work is to create an accessible way for people to receive information about sex. She does this through various forms of media, including her Youtube videos, that portray plot twists, attractive people, relatable characters and visuals from scripted entertainment and porn to teach sex-ed. She does not consider herself to be an expert on all things sex education, but instead sees herself as “an accessible point to the person who never thought, 'Improving my sex life or sexual attitude can improve all areas of my life'". She views herself as an entry point into the field of sex education and relationship advice. Shannon is currently represented by ICM and Two West Entertainment. 
Shannon Boodram was raised in Toronto, Canada and is of Caribbean descent. Her father is East Indian with Guyanese heritage and her mother is biracial with Black Dominican heritage and white Irish heritage. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband Jared Brady. 
In her anthology, Laid: Young People's Experiences With Sex In An Easy Access Culture (2009), Shannon Boodram collects personal firsthand accounts of young people dealing with sex in today’s world. Boodram engages teens and young adults in honest dialogue that explores the ways they see and experience sex, how sex shapes their beliefs, and what they have learned about themselves and their sexuality through their actions. Her book offers more than 40 personal narratives from both female and male perspectives, that offer different viewpoints on young adult sexuality in today’s society. 
The Game of Desire: 5 Surprising Secrets to Dating with Dominance--and Getting What You Want (2019) is a self help book written by Shannon Boodram to help women gain control and confidence in their love lives and relationships. In this how to guide Boodram addresses the realities of love and attraction today, by teaching a group of young women how to become "master daters" in sixty days. This book contains conversational case studies, expert insight about sex culture, and comprehensive facts about the psychology of sex and romance. 
Category:Canadian people
Category:Sex educators
Category:Canadian YouTubers