In February 2021, Chanel was studying her Masters in Gender, Education and International Development at University College London when she posted on Instagram asking ‘have you or has anyone else ever been sexually assaulted by someone who went to an all boys school in Sydney?’. In 24 hours, 204 people had said yes. She then launched a website called teachusconsent.com with a petition to mandate consent education in the Australian curriculum. Overnight, she was leading a national campaign to prevent sexual violence. After a year of working closely with Government across the political spectrum, 45,000 signatures from the Australian public, and 7000 testimonies of sexual assault – all Ministers of Education from around the country unanimously agree to mandate consent education, from Kindergarden until year 10.
In 2021 Chanel was the recipient of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Young People’s Medal, and in 2022 her activism gained international recognition when she received The Diana Award – the most prestigious accolade a person under 25 can receive for their social action or humanitarian work.
Last year, Chanel was named as one of BBC World’s 100 influential and inspiring women worldwide and she has a book coming out in the second half of this year on consent and rape culture.
Hear from Chanel at the Festival as part of the ‘Girls, Boys and Everything in Between’ panel event.