Dear Christine,
YOU SHOULD hear the girls at my school talking about their boyfriends. I feel some of them are even making up stories.
What makes me feel funny is that they say I must be frigid because I do not run after the boys. I know a few but they are only friends I say “hi” to and talk a little bit with at times. They do not phone me but my friends said I should fool them.
I am 16 and would like to know if you think that something is wrong with me because I don’t know how to act with the boys. I feel really bad at times when they are talking about boyfriends and I do not have one.
I dare not talk to my parents about this because they feel most of those girls are wild and are going to get into trouble.
– H
Dear H,
Do not waste your time worrying about people who don’t know what they are talking about. Those girls are quite silly to apply a sort of status symbol to having a boyfriend and are bragging to impress their other equally empty-headed friends. It does not mean that they are right.
At 16 there are years ahead for romance. I think it would be wiser and safer to have a group of friends who really are friends, rather than being in too much of a hurry for a special boyfriend.
Invariably those girls who get involved in their early teens become quite stale after a while and are usually left behind, while the young men move on to other girls who on principle have retained some sort of decent code of behaviour. The man who is settling down does not want a wife who has been somewhat public property.
– CHRISTINE
