Well, as a teen, I was totally obsessed with finding "love" that it overshadowed everything else in my life. Everything else suffered if I was lonely, having trouble with a man, out oflove, recovering from the last horrid relationship, etc. I think that's one of the huge reasons why I married whom I did and when I did... he seemed so "perfect" for me, he seemed to love me, he said all the right things, and I was desperate for what passed for stability. Also desperate to not move back in with my parents, because I was dropping out of college. My parents were also desperate for me to find a husband, because I was pretty wild at one point in my youth. They also didn't want to be saddled with me as a single mom (they got me later on, anyway!) There was always this unspoken anxiety that I would never marry, as I was a tomboy (still am)... and there was this unspoken pressure for me to find a man.

It's not all the teen girls' fault, Ladies. We pressure them toward a certain kind of life, whether we want to admit it or not. In my life, I "understood" that the way to find everlasting love was through dating and sex. I was never taught how to relate to males any other way. Either they were bosses or they were boyfriends / lovers. I tried to just be "human," but there wasn't anyone to just be a person with.

I think boys are victims of the same B.S., too.

So if you have a girl who knows nothing outside of the role of lover, and a boy who knows nothing outside of the role of lover (or hit and run!), how are girls going to avoid the things we fear most for them?

Just my 2 cents' worth....