You may have noticed over the past few years that sexy Halloween costumes are becoming more and more popular with younger and younger girls. Do a Google search for sexy Halloween costume and you get close to 2 million hits - and that’s with the safe search on! And yes, it really is [...]

I happen to live with a city planner. Among other things, this means that my professional books (Reviving Ophelia, Reaching Up For Manhood, You Look Too Young to be a Mom) are interspersed with his professional books (Toward the Livable City and An Ecological History of Agriculture, 10,000 B.C. - A.D. 10,000). Fascinating [...]

As I was leaving on Friday, I wrote briskly about Genarlow Wilson and the illegality of teenagers having sex with teenagers. I want to address the second issue more completely now.
We legalize so much of human action. Now don’t get me wrong, I am no libertarian. I do not want to throw [...]

I have written about Genarlow Wilson before. He’s the young Georgia man who was sentenced to 10 years without parole for having consensual oral sex at age 17 with a 15 year old. The Wikipedia page on Wilson tells his story in its entirety. Before I enumerate and lambaste the issues in [...]

Good morning, folks, and TGIF! I’m all worn out from the week, so I’ll let Mr. Scott and Mr. Borgman do the heavy-lifting for me.
Yesterday’s Zits strip (8/25/07) was a great example of a parent sharing too much personal information - and a legitimate response from their teenager. While in this example is about [...]

This is a fabulous organization: Sistas on the Rise. Here is what they say about themselves:

Sistas on the Rise is a space for young women of color ages 13-21, to take ownership and power over their lives and create a healthy community. We acknowledge that young women of color need a safe space to [...]

Several weeks ago I wrote about what boys need to know about masturbation. One reader took exception to my statement that: “Lotion is a good idea, get yourself some or ask a parent to get you some.” Here is what he had to say:
I want to commend you for writing such an affirming [...]

I have just begun to volunteer with my church’s youth group (high school age). We’re a new-ish church, and the youth group is quite small - only three kids, really, and they aren’t terribly close. So we’re trying to engage new youth, to do community-forming activities, and to draw the youth and [...]

There’s lots of talk about how racy or sex-filled television shows are likely to increase sexual activity among teenagers.
But the study linked above, and much of the rest of the talk on this topic, don’t really talk about teenagers - they talk more about pre-teenagers, or early teens. As a teenager I didn’t really [...]

The school board in Portland, Maine has voted to allow prescription birth control to be distributed in the Middle School Health Center without parental permission or notification. Parents will need to give permission for their children to access the Health Center Services, but will not be informed of what services they receive there. [...]