January 2023 Carnival of Aces Call for Submissions: "The Advice You Wish You'd Had"

Scene from Frozen II, where Olaf the snowman sings "When I'm Older." "This will all make sense when I am older / Someday I will see that this makes sense / One day when I'm old and wise / I'll look back and realize / That these were all completely normal events." Image source.

Hi everyone, I am hosting the Carnival of Aces this month. 

A Carnival of Aces is a monthly blogging carnival centered on the asexual spectrum (asexuals, gray-As, demisexuals, etc.).  Anyone can participate, but responses should deal with asexuality or the asexual spectrum, and they should relate to the month’s theme (which is announced each month by the host).  Responses should postdate the call for submissions.  Alternate forms of media besides blogs are also welcome as long as they deal with the prompt.  If you’re not sure whether your piece is okay, submit it anyway and we’ll figure it out.

For this month, I've chosen the topic "The Advice You Wish You'd Had."

A lot of people haven't heard of asexuality- or even if they've heard of it, they know very little about what it actually means. This lack of awareness of asexuality often makes it really difficult for aces to even figure out our own identities.

Also, most sex-ed materials aren't inclusive of aces. Sometimes they do mention asexuality, but it's just 1 little mention and then the whole rest of their material is written for allosexuals (ie, people who are not on the asexual spectrum).

So, I think it takes a long time for us to even figure out what we want or don't want, and how to go about handling things like relationships, sex, doctors, etc. Perhaps there are things we wish we had known about sooner, or things that we want to tell young people so that the next generation of aces can figure it out easier.

For example:

• How did you first hear about asexuality? Does your current understanding of asexuality differ from your initial impression the first time you heard of it? Is there a different way of explaining it that would have been more helpful to you?
• What sex-ed advice do you wish you had? How can we make sex-ed resources that are inclusive of aces?
• Is there any relationship advice you heard that you later figured out didn't work for you? What different advice would you give instead?
• Did you see any asexual characters in movies/books/etc which were helpful or not helpful to you? What makes good representation? What should be done better?
• Are there things you would have done differently if you had been more confident in your identity at a younger age?
• Or, alternatively, what's some good advice that you were given, and how did it affect you?

To submit a blog post for the carnival, leave a comment on this post, or email me at perfectnumber628 at gmail . com. Submissions are due January 31, 2023. I will post the roundup of submissions at the beginning of February. :)

UPDATE: Roundup has been posted here.