Popping your cherry. Handing in your V-card. Losing it. This honest and poignant collection of essays by women about losing their virginity in their teens reflects diverse real-world experiences and captures the complexity of the decision to have sex for the first time.

In The V-Word, seventeen writers (including Christa Desir, Justina Ireland, Sara Ryan, Carrie Mesrobian, Erica Lorraine Scheidt, and Jamia Wilson) pull back the sheets and tell all, covering everything from straight sex to queer sex, diving-in versus waiting, and the exhilaration and disappointment that blankets it all. Some of their experiences happened too soon, some at just the right time, but all paint a broad picture of what first-time sex is really like.

Funny, hot, meaningful, cringe-worthy, forgettable, empowering, and transformative, the stories in The V-Word are never preachy, but provide a map for teens to chart their own course through the steamy waters of sex. With The V-Word young readers can finally take control, learn what's on the horizon, and eliminate the fear and mystery surrounding sex.