How to get around Scarleteen:

From the front page, or any other page on the site, you'll see a blue rectangle at the top right, which contains all the indexes for all of the sections.

• Skin Deep: Anatomy, body, general health and body image.
• SexYOUality: Just what it says -- sex and sexuality basics and not-so-basics.
• Take Two: Relationships and relationship issues.
• Gaydar: Issues specific to gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer folk.
• Infection Section: All about sexually transmitted infections and diseases, and how to prevent them.
• Pink Slip: Issues specific to women.
• Boyfriend: Issues specific to men.
• Repro Depot: Reproduction, pregnancy and birth control.
• Sexual Politics: The personal is political when it comes to sexuality, gender, body integrity and other loaded issues.
• Crisis Hotline: In case of emergency -- address on issues like rape, abuse, emergency contraception, abortion and other crises.
• In Your Own Words: First-person pieces from our users -- read or submit one yourself.
• Find a Doc: Coming Soon -- a tool for you to use to find and recommend doctors and sexual healthcare clinics near you.
• Read Up!: Information on the Scarleteen book and connections to many other young adult books on sexuality and related topics we recommend.
• Sexpert Advice: Where to get and read advice on sex and sexuality issues from our new cadre of sexperts.
• Message Boards: The busy, fully moderated discussion community at Scarleteen

If you click on any of those links in that blue rectangle, you'll be brought to the main page for each of those sections, most of which will have an index of articles. For instance, go ahead and click on Skin Deep. Now you'll see an index of articles.

Some sections have more than one page of articles: if you scroll to the bottom of the page and see a "next" link, you can click on that to be brought to additional pages of articles within that section.

Clicking on the purple link for any article brings you to the article. Let's click on Pink Parts, just to see.

So, now we're at the article, Pink Parts. At the top left of that article, you'll see a small box with the title of the section -- Skin Deep -- on it, and then three links:

• Articles: the articles in that section.
• Resources: suggested external links, resources and organizations pertinent to the topic of that section.
• Discuss: suggested, ongoing discussion topics at the message boards pertinent to that section.

Below that square are some links to basic information about Scarleteen, including this page, our history and background, our user guidelines, advertising information and how to donate so you can help keep us up and running.

You've Been Reading...

Below that block on the left hand sidebar, you'll see another block titled "Last Viewed" Those are the last few articles logged-in users have viewed at any given time, at the main site. It's a good way to discover articles you may not yet have found yourself, or to explore sections you haven't otherwise explored. Or, if you like, it's just something cool to watch and geek out on in terms of seeing what other people are interested in. :)

Tags

You'll also notice that at the top of every article is a line called tags, with a list of words or phrases relevant to that article. Clicking on any of those tags will bring you to other articles and resources related to that word or phrase. So, lets' say you want to know more about clitoris, so you click on the tag for clitoris. Then you'll see some other suggested articles and resources.

Tags are a great way to help you find exactly the information you're looking for quickly, so you don't have to go through the indexes when you know exactly what you want or need. On the left hand sidebar of every page, below the last read articles, you'll find a "cloud" of the most frequent tags used for quick reference: clicking on any of them will lead you to articles, resources and blog posts given that tag.

Special Sections:

• In Your Own Words: In Your Own Words is our section of articles and reviews written by you, our readers. Because young adults in our culture are so much more often seen, rather than heard, and your voices are so important, we encourage you to submit your pieces: first-person narratives about your relationships, your sexual identity, your body issues, your sexuality and/or sex life, as well as book reviews on similar subjects.
• Find a Doc: Coming soon, a database collectively built by all of us and all of you to give a shout-out to the great sexual healthcare providers and clinics you've used, to help others find the great sexual healthcare they need.
• Sexpert Advice: One-on-one advice from our cadre of sexperts: you submit a question, we give you an answer. The index of advice is listed by question, for those who just want to read.
• Message Boards: The beating heart of Scarleteen, our message board with over 30,000 registered users, completely moderated by our staff and volunteers, and the best place to get a rapid-fire answer to any of your sexuality questions, or just to hang out and talk about these topics in a safe space.
• The Blog:Sex education, sexuality, sexual health and young adult issues in the news, presented with opinion by Scarleteen staff and volunteers.

Let's go back to the front page. You can always get back to the front page by clicking on the large Scarleteen logo in the upper left corner of every page.

Right under that logo on the front page, are the Scarleteen basics again, some explanation of who we are and what we do, and our most recent blog posts and message board posts. If you scroll a bit lower, in the lower middle of the page, you'll see links to our current top ten articles at Scarleteen: the articles users are loading most at any given time, and below that, a daily poll. Above that are links to some suggested articles and new pieces. You can access any of those just by clicking on the purple linked text. To the right of that is information on the Scarleteen book.

Below all of that, at the bottom right, is a smaller blue rectangle, like the main navigation at top, with links to information about Scarleteen, our media kit, info for parents, a link to our blog, a site map and then a button through which to contact us.

Let's try finding some information, so you can see how this can work. For example, if what you came here wanting to know was what you needed to do to practice safer sex, the first thing you could do was look at that top blue rectangle. You can figure out that a couple of those sections are most likely to have what you need, like the SexYOUality section or the Infection Section, and indeed, both have that information. OR, you could use the tags on the left hand sidebar, and click the tag that says "safer sex." That will give you a list of every article, blog post, page and advice question that deals with safer sex. OR, you could scroll down to the bottom of any page, and input "safer sex" into the search window, and that will also give you a long list of relevant articles, answers and resources.

In the case that you can't find exactly the answer you need already here, you can ask it either at the message board or through the Sexpert Advice section.

Registration:

Many users will not need to register to use the main site. (Registration for the boards is a separate account: to register to use the boards, click here.)

If you want to input a question to be answered, use the In Your Own Words section, add a doctor or clinic to the Find a Doc list, submit comments to blog entries without delay and be counted in last read articles, then you'll need to register and log in.

On any internal page of the site -- any page but the front page, on the left-hand sidebar, underneath all the other content in that sidebar, you'll see an option to register and/or log in. Registration requires only that you be over the age of 13 (sorry, but that's the law, not our own rules) a working email address, and adherence to our user guidelines and privacy policy, which is the same for the main site as it is for the boards. You can find and read that here. Once you're registered and logged-in, then you'll see your name attached to that box on every page, and your options as a user.

Extras

At the bottom of every page, you'll see a smaller blue rectangle with some extra links in it: to the information about us, donation information, a note for parents, our blog, a basic map of the site and tags, and a link through which you can contact us via email.

At the lowest left of every page, you'll also see a box through which you can search the site for whatever it is you're looking for.

And that's that! You should easily have a handle on getting around Scarleteen, and we hope you're able to find all you need here. Should you be on the lookout for something you need pertaining to sexuality that isn't on the site, by all means, drop us a line and share your suggestion with us. Scarleteen's content has always primarily been based in responding to user needs, so we're always up for new ideas.