“Sex Education” Creator Talks Season 3

LAURIE NUNN, CREATOR, “SEX EDUCATION”: Yes. The adult characters are equally important really in the show. And, you know, I think in some ways, we’re a teen show, but I also see it as we’re a show about being a teenager. And I think that being a teenager is such a universal experience. And I’m in my 30s now, but I feel like I’m 16 inside. I don’t think I have changed that much. And I think that’s very much really at the core of the show. It’s the adults are learning and messing up just as much as the teenagers are.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Do you feel you are, as you go? Obviously, you have a team of producers and writers there with you and you are still a very young woman, but I would imagine that there are scenes and episodes where you’re learning about life in this younger generation as well. And how it differs from yours.

NUNN: Yes. I mean, writing the show has been a complete like learning curve for me. And I feel like I’m just learning new tools and new language to talk about my sexuality and my identity every day. And things that I wasn’t given as a younger person particularly through the sex education I had at school. And, you know, sometimes I feel a bit grief stricken about that because I kind of wish that I felt as empowered then as I do now. But it’s just really positive to keep learning about this subject matter.

GOLODRYGA: One of the harder issues that you tackle here is sexual assault as experienced by one of the characters, Amy, who in the first season seems to have a rosy perception of life and is sort of a charming young figure until she is sexually assaulted. You too are the victim of sexual assault. You have been public about that. What was that like for you to write about and then see on camera through the characters?

NUNN: Yes, I knew it was something that I really wanted to write about for myself. I think in a cathartic way. And Amy, as a character, really was — it’s sort of awful to say, but she was the best character to explore that story line with because she’s very innocent and sees the world, you know, yes, really with rose-tinted glasses. So, you get to see what she’s like before that experience and then after that experience. And it’s been very moving, particularly the messages that I get from, you know, lots of young women who had been through, you know, similar experiences and felt a sense of cathartic and also solidarity seeing Amy and her female counterparts like getting on the school bus at the end and supporting each other.