This proposal uses adolescent-generated “journey maps” to examine how young people in Baton Rouge, Louisiana navigate real-world access to over-the-counter oral contraception, highlighting the gap between availability and lived access in both retail and online settings. In restrictive sexual and reproductive health environments like Louisiana, adolescents face intersecting structural, informational, social, and financial barriers, and regulatory approval alone does not ensure meaningful access. By analyzing contraception as a multi-step, experience-based process rather than a single outcome, the study brings a novel, adolescent-centered lens to understanding access.

We will employ a rigorous phenomenological, journey-based qualitative design in which 40–50 adolescents aged 15–18 document their own attempts to obtain Opill through both retail and online pathways. A key innovation is the within-participant comparative design: each adolescent completes both pathways in randomized order, allowing direct comparison of how different access environments shape experiences. Data collection integrates real-time documentation (checklists and voice memos), pre- and post-attempt interviews, and co-constructed visual journey maps, capturing both practical steps and emotional responses such as anxiety, stigma, but also autonomy and empowerment.

The approach stands out by combining youth-led data generation, real-world behavioral observation, and participatory validation through focus groups, alongside a retail audit and GIS analysis of access conditions. The study will produce actionable outputs, including journey maps identifying precise breakdown points in access pathways and adolescent created “”Accessing Opill”” experience guides and social-media messaging. Findings will directly inform implementation strategies for retailers, public health organizations, manufacturers, and policymakers, advancing equitable, adolescent-centered access to OTC contraception.