I had been dating a guy I really liked for a little over four months. When it suddenly ended, I was devastated. So I came up with this list, with help from friends and teens across the country, that helps […]
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“What’s an orgasm?” my nine-year-old self asked curiously, wide eyed and totally clueless as to what I had just requested my fourth grade teacher explain to me in front of the whole class. As a kid, I read whatever I […]
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As a Christian teenager, I get a good sense of “how” I should be from the Bible. In the Bible, it’s written that Jesus said, “Do unto other as you would have them do unto you.” Whether you are Christian, […]
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Figures on bathroom signs. Aisles at the toy store. Gender is represented everywhere. Colors, clothing and careers are even assigned genders: blue and pink, pants and skirts, doctors and nurses. Gender is often thought of as an either/or—man or…
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Everyone knows that classic teen movie scene: the fairy-tale first time with the candles, romance and perfect sex. But sex isn’t always what it is in the movies. In fact, it almost never is. Put two people together with little […]
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When I first learned that my sister, Jenny, wanted to write for Sex, Etc. magazine, I was immediately a little freaked out. A magazine that teaches people about sexual health and sexuality? Was she going to go all “health teacher” on […]
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Imagine that you had sex and the condom broke. Now you’re pregnant. You aren’t ready and can’t afford to be a parent right now. You have your whole life ahead of you—college, your dream job, starting a family. Your family […]
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I grew up in a pretty conservative, rural, stuck-in-its-ways small town. It’s a town of crops and cattle where church parking lots are full on Sundays and the gravel dirt roads are paved by trucks with flat decks. Its residents […]
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I looked over my shoulder to make sure no one saw me as I quickly opened the door to my local clinic, Hoboken Family Planning. Though I didn’t need hormonal birth control, I was there to learn how you get […]
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“Abortion.” The word may seem daunting and clinical, but the reality is, abortion is a safe and legal option when it comes to an unplanned pregnancy. Some people may have mixed feelings about abortion for many reasons, including the stigma […]
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Sixteen-year-old Sabrina, of Edison, NJ, grew up believing that she’d be abstinent until marriage. “My parents always spoke openly about sex, but it was under the assumption that I wouldn’t do it until I’m married. They’ve always made it…
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In middle school, we were required to take a class that taught us “teen-living skills.” In between learning proper placement of forks and knives, there was a brief mention of the word “sex.” To sum up the lesson, we were […]
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Condoms have long been a hot topic at Sex, Etc., as teens often have questions about what kind to get, how effective they are and how to use them correctly. This is pretty cool, actually, because it means that a […]
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Though the United States has the highest teen birth rates in the industrialized world, teen parents and parents-to-be often find themselves stigmatized by others, sometimes even by the people who might normally be sources of support such as friends…
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Many teenage girls experience feelings of disliking their bodies at one point or another. In the media, we tend to see only certain body types, so it’s no surprise that someone might feel bad about her body. Katya Summers, 17, […]
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Last month, I was tested for HIV for the first time ever. Sex, Etc. is constantly encouraging people to get tested, and with HIV Testing Day coming up on Sunday, June 27th, I thought it would be a great time […]
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