Beyond the Birds and the Bees

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or bookmark the page in your browser. Also, please consider submitting your story for inclusion on the site. Thanks for stopping by.In 1994, my parents divorced. I was nine.
It was winter, and we were in the middle of the biggest ice [...]

I am the daughter of a sexual assault survivor. I have been aware of this fact since before I actually understood what sex - much less sexual assault - was.
When I was about six years old, my mother was going through therapy. She’d kept the secret of her assault from her family for nearly two [...]

I was raised in a weird combination of conservative Christian values and comfortable honesty. I was never ashamed of my body.
Growing up I spent more time naked than I did clothed. My parents never told me to cover up. I didn’t start wearing shirts around the house until my breasts grew in. I developed [...]

On day,when I was in grade four and my friends and I were playing at school at the back of the baseball field, I shared had a rare piece of illicit sexual information.  I had somehow learned what a condom was and proceeded to share that information with every girl in my class.  I remember [...]

My father’s side of the family is Finish. My father, though born in North America, was raised in a tightly knit and traditional Finnish community.  The language and culture are his first language and culture.  This, among other things, means we have a sauna at my cottage and I have been going in the sauna [...]