Speaking
Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles:
Do you want to keep the kids you love safe?
Educators and staff of youth serving organizations:
Do you want to equip and empower kids to recognize trouble and report it?
Book Diane as a Speaker
Presentations may be customized to include any of the following topics:
- What parents, educators, and care providers need to know now about keeping kids safe
- Sextortion: What you and your kids need to know now about this current threat
- Pornography: Why kids are looking at it—it’s not why you think
- What pornography is teaching your child
- What drives the increase in child-on-child sexual abuse
- What to expect if you’re a survivor of childhood sexual abuse
Presentations may also include any of the following sessions & workshops:
- A morning/afternoon with The Brave Knight. Using Tarantini’s highly acclaimed children’s book, The Brave Knight, kids learn to identify the language and behavior of unsafe individuals such as bullies, sexual predators, and friends headed down a bad path. Kids will hear the story, create a list of 5+ safe adults, and put together 3+ personal safety plans. Elevate the experience by purchasing a copy of The Brave Knight for each child!
- Tarantini conducts body safety assemblies for schools, community groups, churches, etc., often in conjunction with her nonprofit partners.
- As an award-winning writer, Tarantini also offers high energy workshops for adults or kids on the topics of writing and/or book promotion.
April 16, 2025
The 2025 West Virginia Child Safety Summit in Morgantown, WV
June 6-8, 2025
West Virginia Writers’ annual conference in Ripley, WV
June 24, 2025
Reading and enrichment activity at the WVU Extension Energy Express Program, 10 a.m-?, in Parkersburg, WV
July 26, 2025
The West Virginia Wellness Festival in Morgantown, WV
August 15, 2025
Join me as I emcee The Newlywed Game in the Friday Night Fundraiser Series: Game Show Edition – to benefit the Monongalia County Child Advocacy Center. 6:30pm-8:30pm, at the Mon County Center in Morgantown, WV.
Sept. 24, 2025
University of Charleston Luncheon Series, noon-2 pm., University of Charleston, Charleston, WV
SiblingsToo Podcast Interview with Nancy Morris
Ep.61 | TV's Most Taboo Topic – SSA in White Lotus, Hollyoaks, and Why It Matters
In this probing episode of the #SiblingsToo podcast, host Nancy Morris explores the challenges of representing sibling sexual abuse (SSA) in television programs, joined by experts and survivors Brinn Langdale, Diane Tarantini, and Tanith McCulloch. Against the backdrop of media representations like HBO’s White Lotus and the UK’s Hollyoaks, they navigate the multifaceted conversations surrounding SSA and highlight the urgency for responsible and informed storytelling.
MommunityPodcast with Kimberly King and Diane Tarantini
Let's Talk About Preventing Sibling Sexual Abuse
Diane Tarantini and Kimberly King share survivor tips and must learn information vital in preventing abuse.
Topics covered:
1. The difference between Normal Curiosity vs abuse
2. The definition of SSA
3. Some red flags can help you identify trouble brewing.
4. Red flags of SSA
5. Tips on how to prevent.
MommunityPodcast with Kimberly King and Diane Tarantini
Should White Lotus have a Trigger Warning for Survivors of Sexual Abuse and Sibling Abuse?
Two Survivor Moms discuss White Lotus! And how they feel about the episode featuring sibling sexual abuse.
Is this a learning opportunity? Or is this HBO sensationalizing sibling abuse? Was this sibling sexual abuse? Is this glamourizing abuse? Should there have been a trigger warning at the beginning of the episode? Will they include resources for families to get help? Will Piper save the day?
TMZ Live Podcast Interview with Harvey Levin and Charles Latibeaudiere
'White Lotus' Upsets Incest Survivors
When HBO Max featured sibling sexual activity in the third season of their show, “The White Lotus,” a media firestorm ensued. Articles ran in Time Magazine and The Guardian about the episode, and multiple podcasts discussed how the scene was handled. Harvey and Charles, hosts on TMZ—an American entertainment-focused tabloid news organization—contacted SSA survivor Diane Tarantini to ask how THE episode of “White Lotus” impacted victims of sibling sexual abuse and trauma.
What Would Dr. Meyers Do? Podcast Interview with Amy Meyers, PhD, LCSW.
Episode 95: Sibling Abuse Series: Everyone was Silent - An Experience of Sibling Sexual Abuse Part I
A passionate advocate for child safety education and a sibling sexual abuse survivor, Diane Tarantini shares her family dynamics and experience on which her memoir is based. She discusses her parents’ ineffective intervention and how she forgave them and her brother. She models resilience and hope through her wisdom, work, and vibrant personality.
What Would Dr. Meyers Do? Podcast Interview with Amy Meyers, PhD, LCSW.
Episode 96: Sibling Abuse Series: Everyone was Silent - An Experience of Sibling Sexual Abuse Part II
In the second part of Diane’s story of sibling sexual abuse, Diane shares more about her sibling dynamics, generational abuse, and her relationship with her abusive brother throughout the years.
OutSPOKEN Interview with Josephine Lauren
Diane Tarantini: Sibling Sexual Abuse Survivor
Listen to Josephine A. Lauren interview Diane Tarantini, a memoirist who writes honestly about her experience as a sibling sexual abuse survivor. Learn about the causes, costs, and consequences of COCSA, or child-on-child sexual abuse, on individuals and families. Then discover ways to prevent it and reduce harm through intervention. For all those survivor writers out there, Diane shares some great tips about writing about sexual abuse.
ONE Voice Podcast Interview with Nicole Braddock Bromley
Everyone Was Silent
Special Guest: Diane Tarantini is a child safety professional and a body safety educator in West Virginia. She is a friend of the OneVOICE podcast having been with us in the past to discuss her book “A Brave Knight”. Now she is back to talk about her just released memoir “Everyone Was Silent”.
Bar Fights Podcast Interview with Sarah Klein
Diane Tarantini, Part I: What are a groomer's tactics? What should every parent be asking their child's school?
Sarah sits down with Body Safety Educator and author Diane Tarantini to discuss the crucial education that Diane and her colleagues provide our school children to help keep them safe from predators’ insidious grooming. What are a groomer’s tactics? What should every parent be asking their child’s school? Listen in for the answers.
Bar Fights Podcast Interview with Sarah Klein
Diane Tarantini Part 2: Tips for keeping kids safe
In part 2 of their interview, Sarah and Diane share words of wisdom for keeping our children safe and keeping the doors of communication with them open when it comes to uncomfortable topics. On the table today- the two most common mistakes parents make when it comes to their child’s safety, sextortion, and why our kids are watching pornography, what are they learning from it, and how they are they acting it out.
MommunityPodcast with Kimberly King and Diane Tarantini
Holiday Safety Tips
Let’s talk turkey about holiday body safety. Tune in for these essential holiday safety tips. Why is this important to talk about before the holidays?
Because…
90% of child sexual abuse happens within our inner circles. Family, friends, and people we know and trust. And child to child abuse accounts for over 70% of CSA.
AND…
Child sexual abuse can only happen with time and opportunity.
ONE Voice Podcast Interview with Nicole Braddock Bromley
Body Safety and The Brave Knight
Guest: Diane Tarantini, author of The Brave Knight which “articulates incredibly complex child abuse grooming techniques/dynamics (ie. desensitizing physical contact, isolation from familial supports, love for perpetrators, disparity of social power), and somehow does it in an age-appropriate, non-threatening way. A brilliant, compelling, and inspiring resource for kids and those who love them.” -Robert Peters: Senior Attorney at Zero Abuse Project, founder of Shield Task Force, former prosecuting attorney, former US Marine.
WV Book Team: Author tells own story to prevent sexual abuse of children
This month we spend some time with Diane Tarantini, who uses her experiences and her words to prevent other children from enduring what she did as a child.
Read the rest of the interview with Diane Tarantini here.
Diane Tarantini: The Story I was Born to Write
Ever since the 4th grade, I’ve known two things. I’d get counseling, and I’d write a book. Both for the same reason: a challenging childhood.
Read the rest of the story behind Everyone was Silent here.
Diane Tarantini: Teaching students about body safety
Dear West Virginia Middle Schoolers: How do I love you? Let me count the ways.
In my work as a child safety educator in the Mountain State, middle school body safety assemblies are my favorite.
Read more here.
A shield against abuse: Children's book by WV author educates about predatory grooming
“The Brave Knight,” by West Virginia author and child sexual abuse survivor Diana Tarantini, describes the concept of predatory grooming in a way that children, teens and adults can all grasp.
A review on The Brave Knight featured in the Charleston Gazette-Mail by Maria Young.
Big Bravery in Small Forms
When it comes to the tough subject of body safety, West Virginia author Diane Tarantini brings you the perfect conversation starter in a child-friendly form.
A review on The Brave Knight featured in the Morgantown Magazine by Devin Lacy.
Diane Tarantini: A Children's Book is Born
The Brave Knight, a children’s book by Diane Tarantini, tells a fantasy story that teaches kids, in a non-threatening way, to be on their guard against sexual predators.
Read more here.
