language

What our identity is in terms of our gender isn't about what someone else decides or presumes--it's up to us to reflect on our experiences and feelings about who are are on the inside, and to label that (or choose not to label it) in whatever way feels true to us as individuals. What feels right and...

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...

Be yourself, even if that means that there isn’t a label for you. Explain to anyone who matters who you are. You’re not your labels.

Good question! I wish I had an answer to give you as succinct and simple as your question. The answer is that it depends. Many countries have age of consent (AOC) laws that are federal, or the same throughout a whole nation, so it just depends then on what country you're in. If you're not in one of...

I've known that I am attracted to men for as long as I can remember. I identify as a MSM or as "downe" rather than as bisexual. Being attracted to men didn't bother me as much as how that attraction would play out. There aren't many black MSMs in the media so it was hard for me to reconcile my race and my masculinity with my attraction to men. I felt as though I would be seen as weak or effeminate by others.

While a recent Kinsey survey pointed this out, it's not news to anyone who does any kind of sexuality education that people have a mighty hard time agreeing on what "sex" means. It's very common for someone to figure that what sex means for them, the way they have experienced or classified sex, is...

I'm writing this because someone told you that you can't understand or experience love at your age. If no one did yet, they probably will soon enough. I'm writing to tell you that if you've heard that, I just don't think it's true.

What you're discovering is one of the many ways in which virginity as a concept often doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Let me be plain: if you two pursue sexual pleasure together, however you choose to do it, whatever your bodies are like, I think you're having sex; you'll have had some kind of...

Please understand that anal sex is sex. It is no more or less sex than vaginal intercourse is, just like oral sex is sex and manual sex (fingering or handjobs) are sex: that's why all those terms end with the word "sex." So, if you do not want to have sex until marriage, then don't have sex until...

You're not the only person confused by this term, so let's see if we can't clear it up for everyone once and for all. When healthcare professionals ask that question, they are asking from a sexual health perspective. In other words, what they are wanting to know is if a patient or client has...