Loose Girl

Ruminations of a Girl Gone Wild

by Kerry Cohen

There Is No Getting Past It: What Can a Teenager Do About Regrettable Sexts?

When Ben asked Jenna to send him pictures, she did. It started with her chest, clothed, then unclothed. Then her entire body, first in bra and underwear, then nude. She examined the final one before she sent it off - a body with a head cut off, like a mannequin, like a doll. A body that could be anyone's. A sinking feeling started in her stomach, but she sent it anyway. Read More

A Conversation About Girls and Sex

Lidia Yuknavitch, author and scholar, and I sat down to discuss my book Dirty Little Secrets: Breaking the Silence on Teenage Girls and Promiscuity Read More

Not Love, Actually: The Harmful Narrative of Romance*

The things that happen are never ever like the romance narratives that have permeated our cultural consciousness. And because of this, they assume there is something wrong with them. They do what we call catastrophic thinking: if no one has ever loved me like that, I am not worth loving. I am not lovable. Read More

If a Teenage Girl Has Sex, Does This Means She's At Risk?

When you deny an entire segment of the population an essential part of who they are, a part they have full right to, they often wind up using it in a self-destructive manner rather than as a natural part of their development. Read More

Boys Aren't As Interested in Romance and Other Generalizations My Step-Daughter Should Know

“I want you to notice this,” I told her. “No boys have hung around to watch this with us. Can you guess why?” She shook her head. I said, “Because boys don’t care about romance the way girls do.” Read More

Are Men's Bodies Hot or Not? Some Thoughts on Weinergate

Unless you live under a rock, you've heard about Representative Anthony Weiner's scandal in which he sent photos of his junk to a series of women. Most recently, he admitted through tears that yes, indeed, those photos of his impressive package and fine body are indeed him. He called it a "hugely regrettable mistake." Hugely, indeed, Mr. Representative. Read More

Rules Girls Envy

I have always wanted to be a Rules Girl. Before anyone had written a series of books and been on Oprah and charged 800 dollars for workshops, I knew that something like the Rules Girl existed, and that I wasn't it. These were the girls who guys chased, who they fell hard for, who they couldn't let go of long after the relationship was over. These were the girls who got loved. Read More

Are Tiger Woods' mistresses people too?

This need to label makes it easy to forget how much we are like them. If we demonize behavior that is outside societal convention is it because we fear it in ourselves? What if these women are not "gold-digging whores" and "mistresses," but are actually just people - like you and me - who have some emptiness in their hearts, who want to believe they might be loved and chosen by someone, maybe even someone as powerful and talented as Tiger Woods? Read More

Kerry Cohen is the author of Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity, as well as four young adult novels. She lives and works in Portland, Oregon.

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About Loose Girl

Loose Girl is Kerry Cohen's captivating memoir about her descent into promiscuity and how she gradually found her way toward real intimacy. The story of addiction—not just to sex, but to male attention—Loose Girl is also the story of a young girl who came to believe that boys and men could give her life meaning.