Virgin teenager

The casual observer in Germany might be forgiven for thinking the Germans are oversexed. Pornographic cinemas and blush-inducing sex shops are a familiar part of the urban landscape, while exposed breasts are a common sight on advertising billboards and magazine covers. With all that stimulating material around, it's not surprising that young Germans apparently have sex on the brain. A newly-released World Health Organization WHO report on sexual habits among teenagers in 26 European countries reveals that German teens are quick off the mark when it comes to losing their cherry; the average age at which Germans -- both boys and girls -- first have sex is Only teenagers in Iceland lose their virginity earlier, at an average age of Of the countries surveyed, Slovakia had the tardiest teens, who were on average a mature 18 when they first got it on.

Sometimes it might seem like everyone in school is talking about who's a virgin, who isn't, and who might be. For both girls and guys, the pressure sometimes can be intense. But deciding whether it's right for you to have sex is one of the most important decisions you'll ever have to make. Each person must use his or her own judgment and decide if it's the right time — and the right person.

Earlier this month, venturing into my closet in search of something else, when I pulled out a short paper I had written in graduate school about Simone de Beauvoir, I knew exactly why I had saved it. It was an artifact of how ridiculous and utterly abnormal I had felt still being a virgin at I translated a lack of sexual experience that was, in fact, entirely normal into an indictment of my ability to love and be loved. Beauvoir was a chic French feminist thinker who was brilliant and sexy and unapologetic about openly taking lovers and challenging ideas about women. A few months after I wrote that paper, I met the guy — another student in the program — who would become my first boyfriend, and the world of relationships and intimacy opened up to me.

First things first: there is no right or wrong age to lose your virginity. The only factors that matter when it comes to having sex for the first time is that both YOU and your partner are ready, and you're using protection. And while what you see on TV and in the movies might tell you otherwise, everyone's first time is SO different.