Tag: teens

Building Lasting Friendships in 5 Steps or Less

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building lasting friendships

A follow up from Part I: 5 Ways to Make Friends Fast (Just Don’t Expect It To Last).

Whether the honeymoon period from Freshman Orientation is growing stale or you are new to the neighborhood, building real friendships is important for your well-being and emotional life. It may be easy to bond with someone over a shared yoga class or a frozen yogurt, but it can be trickier to establish real, intimate friendships where you feel comfortable sharing your deep thoughts, venting personal frustrations, or just being together in comfortable silence. Remember: It’s takes time to meet people and build lasting friendships. Here are 5 steps to help you along the way.

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Love Letters: Sexual Pressure, Harassment and Rape

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Love Letters

‘Love Letters’ is a Petal + Sass blog feature that regularly asks a group of diverse women in their 20’s and 30’s about their experiences with health, sex, emotional wellness, body image, college, careers – and what they wish they had known themselves as teenagers. Visit the ‘Love Letters’ To My Former Self page to learn more about the contributors.

Question posed: Were you ever sexually harassed or pressured into engaging in sexual activity that you were uncomfortable with as a teenager? If so, how did you handle the situation? What would you advise a young person who was being pressured or harassed today?

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Love Letters: Playground Love & Dating Regrets

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Love Letters

‘Love Letters’ is a Petal + Sass blog feature that regularly asks a group of diverse women in their 20’s and 30’s about their experiences with health, sex, emotional wellness, body image, college, careers – and what they wish they had known themselves as teenagers. Visit the ‘Love Letters’ To My Former Self page to learn more about the contributors.

Question posed: Do you have any ‘dating regrets’ from high school? Did you date around, just focus on friendships, or have a long-term monogamous relationship? What would you tell yourself about dating in high school if you could do it all over again?

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Role Call: Real Women in Academia

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women in academia

Bernadette is a Research Associate at the University of Southern Maine.

Role Call is a Petal + Sass blog section featuring interviews with professional young women occupying diverse careers- and their advice to teens.

Name: Bernadette Doykos

Age: 32.99 (might be 33 by the time this posts, who knows)

College & Major: Wesleyan University (CT), Sociology

Graduate School & Concentration: Harvard Graduate School of Education, Ed.M. in Risk & Prevention (now Prevention Science and Practice because no one understood what that meant and it was hard to get jobz)

Vanderbilt University, working on that PhD in Community Research and Action (working hard to only secure degrees with meaningless titles to anyone outside of our immediate field. CRUSHING IT)

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How To Apologize (And When You Shouldn’t)

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How To Apologize

A recent New York Times opinion piece raised an important question every woman should stop to consider: Why do I apologize, and do I apologize more just because I’m female?

“For so many women, myself included, apologies are inexorably linked with our conception of politeness,” shares NYT contributor Sloane Crosley after apologizing half a dozen times to a waiter for an unsavory dish she was served. “Somehow, as we grew into adults, ‘sorry’ became an entry point to basic affirmative sentences.”

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CONSENT: Learn it, Live it, Love it, Love it, Love it.

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Do You Want To Have Sex.

Do You Want To Have Sex.

Is this ok?

Do you want this?

Does that feel good to you?

Should I keep going?

Should I stop?

What would you like me to do to you?

Do you want to have sex right now?

These are consent seeking phrases you should be exchanging with a partner when you are about to hook up, while you are hooking up, or when sexual intimacy is advancing to another level. You can never ask “too many times.” Being a conscientious or good lover entails more than just thinking you know when the time is right or where the g-spot’s hiding (hint: you didn’t leave it in the glove box). It involves listening to each other and respecting boundaries.

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Love Letters: My Body, My Birth Control

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Love Letters

‘Love Letters‘ is a Petal + Sass blog feature that regularly asks a group of diverse women in their 20’s and 30’s about their experiences with health, sex, emotional wellness, body image, college, careers – and what they wish they had known themselves as teenagers. Visit the ‘Love Letters’ To My Former Self page to learn more about the contributors.

Question Posed: What types of birth control have worked best for you and why? Conversely, what forms of birth control didn’t work well for you?

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Self Knowledge is Power: Take This Test.

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Myers Briggs Test

You may have heard someone say “I am such an ENFP” before, or maybe the name “Myers-Briggs” rings a bell from your ‘Intro to Psych’ elective. But what is that? And who cares? While Buzzfeed quizzes about what kind of Dorito flavor you’d most likely be (cool ranch, for sure) are super amusing, seeking to understand the depths of your personality, your likes and dislikes, and how you operate in daily life can be a huge asset to your growth and success.

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