NOTA News Newsletter July 2018 1

NOTA Creative Arts Corner
- Interview by Anna Hutchings
In “What does consent really mean?”
the authors, Pete Wallis and Thalia
Wallis explore the serious issue of
sexual consent in a graphic novel format
illustrated by Joseph Wilkins.
The text depicts the conversation
of teenagers aged 13-18 and their
personal feelings on the subject. This
comic book story is accompanied by
sexual health resources for students
and staff (including, teachers, volunteers
PSHE practitioners and international
equivalents).
As a practitioner working with children
and young people who have displayed
harmful sexual behaviour I was struck
by the usefulness of this text for my
casework. Given this, I was curious to
explore how Pete and Thalia came up
with this idea and how their individual
professional experiences informed the
development of this text. Pete Wallis is
the Senior Practitioner in Restorative
Justice for Oxfordshire Youth Justice
Service UK and a founding member
of the charity, “SAFE!” which provides
support for young people affected
by crime. Thalia Wallis is a relational
psychotherapist who supports young
victims of crime, as well as delivering
psycho-educational workshops in
schools. I would like to thank both Pete
and Thalia for kindly agreeing to satiate
my curiosity by answering the following
questions.
What motivated you both to
produce this book and how did
you come up with the idea of a
graphic novel?
Pete: The inspiration for “What
Does Consent Really Mean?” was
the cartoon ‘Consent is as Simple
as Tea’ (www.youtube.com/
watch?v=oQbei5JGiT8), which uses
the analogy of drinking tea to explore
consent. The tea cartoon is clear and
powerful, and well worth watching if
you haven’t already seen it. We felt that
it has a vital message that needs to
be conveyed in many different forms,
and wondered whether there might be
a market for a graphic novel for young
teenagers on the issue. I could certainly
have done with more guidance when
I was a teenager, and the book feels
very timely, coinciding with the #MeToo
movement and the rise in young people
disclosing an experience of sexual
abuse. I had recently published a
graphic novel on restorative justice in
schools called ‘What Are You Staring
At?’ which features wonderful drawings
by the gifted artist Joseph Wilkins, and
we submitted a proposal to the same
publishers, who were interested in
taking it forward.
Thalia: The need for more resources
on consent became apparent through
my work with young victims of crime
and delivering sessions in schools on
consent, healthy relationships, risky
behaviours and pornography. Many
young people find the topic of consent
confusing and many adults don’t feel
equipped to tackle this issue with them
or feel concerned about ‘exposing’
young people too early. In reality many
young people are already exposed to
issues surrounding consent through
schools, their communities and online.
Some young people had some quite
harmful views of sex and relationships
without awareness that their attitudes
could be problematic. We wanted
the book to really acknowledge the
pressures that young people face,
while also giving adults a tool to open
up explorative conversations with
young people so that they are not left
with problematic beliefs about sex
and relationships and are given the
opportunity to challenge and expel
some of the common myths and
misconceptions around consent. The
idea of the graphic novel came from
Pete and I was very happy to use
this format due to the wonderful and
engaging illustrations of Joseph Wilkins
and the accessibility of the layout.
How did you research and
develop your characters so
that they were representative
of young people in
contemporary society?
Thalia: Conversations around
consent are relevant to everyone,
so we really wanted the characters
to have a diverse range of stories,
experiences and backgrounds to
relate to. We wanted to represent male
and female genders equally, as well
as to include reference to different
sexual orientations to really make the
point clear that everyone is invited to
engage in this dialogue. We could
have gone further with diversity and
inclusivity but ended up feeling it was
beyond the scope of this resource. We
both engaged the young people we
work with as well as schools, sexual
health clinics, other local projects and
parents to comment and advise on our
character development and language.
Through this process the content of
the book changed dramatically and
became more and more informed
by the experiences and stories of
young people navigating these issues
themselves. One of the big challenges
was making the language realistic as a
lot of young people fed back that they
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