Readiness

For starters, I think staying silent about this with a romantic partner isn't likely to help you out, especially one you're physical with. Unless you feel like your relationship is too new to be talking about sexuality at all yet, I also don't think keeping how you're feeling to yourself is going to...

Before anything else, one very important thing for you to know is that if you're underage, making and/or sending nude or sexually explicit pictures could be a felony for both of you. In the United States, those images of legal minors are considered child pornography, and his asking you for them...

We talk about this a lot here at Scarleteen: virginity isn't physical or anything that can be universally proven or disproven with body parts. It's an intellectual concept, an idea, a belief, and perhaps most accurately, a word for identity some people use, usually to identify when they or others...

Because you don't want to have any kind of sex or a given kind of sex now, in a given relationship, or don't feel ready now or in this relationship does not mean you won't ever. There are many, many kinds of sex -- not just intercourse, and sex also includes masturbation, having sex by ourselves...

I can't make these choices for you, and I think it's really important you make and own your own choices in relationships and in sex once you start choosing to have them be part of your life. What I can do for you is to try and give you some extra information and perspective, based on what you've...

My hat's off to you for being so thoughtful about the readiness of your partner. Too many people not as concerned as they should be about a partner's readiness, and people are often particularly prone to presume male partners are always ready: that if men want sex, it's all go, with no need to...

Before I dig in here, I want to make clear that I don't think there is any one right age, right time, or right kind of relationship for everyone when it comes to what makes sex right or best. That varies from person-to-person a lot, and isn't usually based on something as simple as only how old we...

Maya, I think it's so important to try not to get hung up on the idea that what other people are doing (or not) sexually has any relevance to what we do or don't do. I completely get wanting to have some idea of where we're at with where others are at, but with something as personal and diverse as...

For some people, in some situations, sixteen is young to have sex. For some, it is too young. For others, it feels like an appropriate age, and others still, it's felt okay to engage in sex at a younger age. Age-in-years, all by itself, doesn't tend to be a good marker of when someone is or is not...

I think that when it feels like the only way you can get someone to take no or "I'm not ready yet" for an answer is to lie and say you were sexually assaulted, that you probably know all you need to know. Same goes for someone who you say you cannot sit down and talk to about saying you aren't ready...