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When Texas Sex Ed Falls Short, Gen Z Women Turn to Social Media

A 2025 study found that 70 percent of adolescents sought reproductive health information through social media platforms.

TikTok is the most popular app among young people, with 68 percent of teens using the app and about one in five reporting they are on it “almost constantly.” On the platform, almost all young women encounter health information.

When University of Texas at Dallas graduate Avishi Handoo first started college, a series of urinary tract infections left her searching for menstrual products that would not irritate her already sensitive skin. While she had heard of tampons and menstrual cups, the idea of using one seemed frightening.

So Handoo turned to YouTube shorts. Scrolling through videos, she found ob-gyns using diagrams of female anatomy to demonstrate how to insert a tampon, alongside influencers sharing personal stories describing how tampons were beneficial to them.

“Without social media, I wouldn’t have been comfortable using a tampon.”

She isn’t alone. TikTok is the most popular app among young people, with 68 percent of teens using the app and about one in five reporting that they are on it “almost constantly.” On the platform, almost all young women encounter health information—whether unintentionally (92.4 percent) or by actively searching for it (65.5 percent). Although they favor advice from medical professionals, a whopping 94 percent have relied on content from general users.

Many Gen Z women say it is through short-form video content that they are first learning about menstrual and reproductive health. In fact, a 2025 study found that 70 percent of adolescents sought reproductive health information through social media platforms.

The growing reliance on short reels-based content highlights long-standing gaps in reproductive health education. For University of Texas at Austin sophomore Khushee Vora, healthcare professionals on video platforms provide an opportunity for young women to receive evidence-based information in states where access may be limited.

“Having women’s health professionals on Tiktok—whether that’s a nurse practitioner or physician assistant or actual physician—is good for women who are living in redder or more conservative areas,” Vora said. While 39 states and the District of Columbia offer HIV and/or sex education, fewer than half of those states require that the information provided in schools be medically accurate.

In Texas, where neither HIV nor sex education are statutorily mandated, informational gaps abound. If schools opt to broach themes of sexual health, they are obligated to adhere to the Texas Abstinence Education Program that teaches students in grades five through 12 a sexual risk-avoidance approach that encourages abstinence before marriage. Topics such as consent, sexual orientation, and gender are excluded, and exposure even to such limited information requires........

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