Changing The Culture Around Sexual Education
Angelique Wan co-founded Consent Labs at 19 years-old in 2016, and since then the organisation has educated over 80,000 people nationally.
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Changing The Culture Around Sexual Education
21 February 2025 at 9:00 am
21 February 2025 at 9:00 am
Angelique Wan is the co-founder and CEO of Consent Labs, a not-for-profit that works to end sexual violence in Australia through the delivery of consent and respectful relationships education.
Angelique was awarded the 2024 Westpac Social Change Fellowship, and recognised as the 2022 NSW Young Woman of the Year. Angelique and her Co-Founder, Dr. Joyce Yu, were named the 2024 Commonwealth Bank SmallBiz Week Social Entrepreneurs of the Year, recognised on the 2023 Forbes Asia 30 under 30 list and 2022 40 Most Influential Asian-Australian list as the winners of the community and advocacy category.
Describe your career trajectory and how you got to your current position.
Have you ever heard comments like “men don’t cry” or “throw like a girl”?
Have you ever seen someone catcalled on the street?
Have you ever felt like your high school sex education didn’t leave you feeling empowered, and maybe even a little bit under-equipped?
These are all things I had experienced before I was 19 years old.
At this time in 2016, I was living on-campus at university and having many conversations with my best friend, now co-founder, Joyce, about how women were treated in experiences around dating. As two young women ourselves, we felt so passionately about the need to foster a society where sexual violence was not the norm; and even more than that, where young people were empowered to engage in good quality, fulfilling and respectful relationships.
We had a clear vision of the future of sex education, and we dove head-first into making this a reality. Joyce and I built Consent Labs alongside full-time university and then full-time work; no, we didn’t have much of an idea about how to start a business. We were just incredibly clear on our vision.
2021 was a turning point. As a result of sustained national advocacy efforts, awareness of the need for consent education spread throughout Australia. I took a leap of faith, leaving my career in Banking to become Consent Labs’ first employee and CEO at 24 years old.
I haven’t looked back since!
Take us through a typical day of work for you.
I’m a time-blocker so my days are usually spent with laptop-time in the morning when my brain is fresh, and then meetings in the afternoon.
I spend a lot of time with my team, making sure they’re supported and have the tools they need to do their best work. There’s also plenty of external engagement — building relationships with partners and fundersat events and conferences to raise the profile of Consent Labs.
When it’s just me and my computer, I’m often deep in grant writing (not exactly my favorite task, but a necessary one).
With teams in both Victoria and New South Wales, I also do a bit of interstate travel to stay connected to the team and the community.
It’s fast-paced, but it’s how I like it!
What is the biggest challenge you’ve encountered in your career, and how did you overcome it?
One of the biggest challenges I still grapple with is co-founding a business and navigating how deeply intertwined my identity became with its successes – and its setbacks; mostly the setbacks, these always seem to hit harder.
There’s also a really big sense of responsibility that comes with leading something you’ve built from the ground up, particularly as our team and the impact starts to get bigger. We now employ almost 40 people, and have goals to educate more and more people every year.
What’s helped is recognizing that I don’t have to carry it all alone. We’ve built an incredible, passionateand empowered team at Consent Labs and a strong Board of Directors. It’s still a work in progress, but I’mlearning that I can lead with care and commitment while also protecting my sense of self.
If you could go back in time, what piece of advice would you give yourself as you first embarked on your career?
If I could go back, I’d tell myself not to stress about having it all figured out. You don’t need a five-year plan, and it’s actually sort of impossible to create one. Your 20s (and honestly, beyond that) are for trying things out, saying yes to new opportunities, and seeing where they lead. Every experience adds something to your toolkit.
So, instead of obsessing over “the perfect path,” I’d remind myself that it’s okay to explore. I could never have foreseen that being the CEO of Consent Labs would be a part of my career journey, but my life is all the better for it. Careers aren’t straight lines — they’re more like winding trails, and sometimes the best views come from unexpected turns.
How do you unwind after work?
After work, I like to switch off by getting lost in a good book — I’ve always been a reader, and I’ve got a goal of reading 36 books this year! I’m also a big foodie (as in I like to eat, not necessarily cook), so I’llhead out with friends, family or my partner to try a new restaurant and spend some quality time with a loved one. And sometimes (often), I’m guilty of getting lost in a mindless scroll on TikTok. I hate it but I love it.
