My Love is Beautiful: Centering Youth Creativity

Milan Leon “Leo” Martinez, a PrEP4Teens Youth Leader since the early days of the project, wanted to create something significant before his time with the project officially ended. From ideation to planning, filming and editing, Leo led the creation of the “My Love is Beautiful” project every step of the way.

Leo gathered peers and creatives like him, designed the set, and directed photographer Tom and videographer Ryder (P4T Youth Leader), as well as dancers Lonzo and Lamaria and makeup artist Eva. Together, they created art that combined beautiful visuals with sexual health information, recognizing the different kinds of love and vulnerability that come from being a young person expressing their sexuality in a world that prefers to keep young people naïve to all the good parts of sex.

Leo’s thoughtfulness and creativity in the early days of PrEP4Teens led to the project’s focus on murals, murals and stickers – which are central components of the campaign.  Watching his growth from a high schooler in our first Creative Think Tank to a confident, brilliant creative director capable of leading a project like “My Love is Beautiful” has been a pleasure.

Check out the full gallery here!