Woman injecting girl's right arm.

A New Tool to Promote HPV Vaccination among Young Adults

Check out an educational yet entertaining campaign to motivate young adults to get the HPV prevention vaccination by Healthy Teen Network!

Caricature of Genevieve Martinez-Garcia

By Genevieve Martínez García, PhD

January 31, 2019

Vaccinations may not be a fun topic to talk about with young people, particularly when they are young adults past their adolescent annual check-up. Yet vaccines are an important healthcare issue, particularly when they can prevent serious conditions, such as cervical cancer. What many young adults don’t know is that is not too late to get vaccinated. But they should do it before being exposed to the strains of HPV that may cause cancer and genital warts.

We were tasked with the challenge of developing an educational yet entertaining campaign to motivate young adults to get the HPV prevention vaccination. We took this opportunity to heavily involve young people in the process and find out what exactly motivates those who did not get the HPV vaccination as children to get it before it’s too late.

A cartoon character contemplating %22cancer or no cancer%22.

We took this opportunity to heavily involve young people in the process and find out what exactly motivates those who did not get the HPV vaccination as children to get it before it’s too late.

First, we engaged young adults through Facebook focus group discussions, and we explored why they have not received the vaccine and which health messages would move them into action. Second, we hired an incredible creative animator who translated our health messages into a humorous script. The end result was HPV: Not Too Late, our campaign to promote vaccination among young adults.

HPV: Not Too Late is Healthy Teen Network’s campaign to promote vaccination among young adults. An incredible creative animator helped translate our health messages into a humorous script.  PHOTO CREDIT: HEALTHY TEEN NETWORK & BLUE SEAT STUDIOS.

Genevieve Martínez-García, PhD, is the Healthy Teen Network Director of Innovation and Research and is committed to shaking things up and bringing innovation to our field. If her kids grant her any downtime, you can find her on her yoga mat, planning a trip, or working on a house project. Read more about Genevieve.

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