SEX IS ALL AROUND US - in the clothes we buy, the music we listen to, and the movies we watch; and there's lots of encouragement to look sexy and be hot. But "having sex" is a whole different world.

I was 12 and in 7th grade. I was a straight A student and had a wonderful life?All the people in school knew I was a virgin and constantly teased me saying I was "A LITTLE GIRL." So I did it?I was no longer a virgin and felt sick to my stomach. After that I slept with four different guys because I felt so dirty.

I was 14 and he was 17 when I lost my virginity. A lot of my friends had been talking about how many guys they had had sex with, and I felt abnormal because I was still a virgin. I felt like I needed to have sex to prove to my friends that I was just as good as them. I thought that doing things with guys was the only way to get people to like me because my friends had sex with guys and all of their older guy friends liked them. I just wanted to be part of the crowd. I'm 13, and I gave it to him because I thought that's what couples were supposed to do. God was I stupid. He told all his friends about me, and then they all tried to get with me. I am 14 years old with lots of regrets. When I was 12, just entering 7th grade, sex was beginning to be all around me. It was everywhere I turned, and I fell into the trap. "Pressure" is the feeling that you are being pushed to do something, whether YOU really want to or not.

Pressure is often very hard to stand up to; but when you feel pressure, you need to step back and think about whether YOU would be doing this if the pressure wasn't there.

Sometimes being "selfish" and only thinking about yourself is a good thing. When doing something will affect YOU (possible pregnancy, STD's, lowered self worth, etc.), you need to be thinking about yourself and not the people around you.

You can learn a lot more about peer pressure by clicking on the "Issues" section, and the "Hooking Up" section has lots of info on having/not having sex.