Parenting
How to calm girls, educate boys, forgo fathers and talk about sex.

Reviewed by Mark Trainer

Sunday, October 30, 2005; Page BW05

Teens Hook Up

Sabrina Weill, a former editor of Seventeen magazine, surveyed more than a thousand youngsters between the ages of 12 and 17 for The Real Truth About Teens & Sex (Perigee, $23.95). And boy, do her subjects use a lot of exclamation marks! The book teases you with the promise of the truth about such parental hair-raisers as "friends with [sexual] benefits," "chicken [or oral sex] parties" and the spookily vague term "hooking up."

Although it delivers on this promise in varying degrees, the book puts the emphasis less on shocking detail than on how parents can decrease the odds that their teen will hook up with an FWB at a chicken party. In spite of the annoyingly frequent interruptions of "Exclusive National Survey Results -- Teens: Tell the Truth!," most of what these teens think about sex won't shock many readers. Weill's strength is her lack of condescension to her subjects and her ability to get them to tell her which, of all the things their parents say to them about sex, actually sticks with them. (From one teen: "I listened when my parents said, 'Do not let anyone push you into something you're not ready for.' ") Weill's association with Seventeen may explain the quick-cut, short-attention-span style of the book, but somewhere in the cacophony of teen voices is likely to be one that sounds just like your kid's.
 

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