Facts of life

The teenager does not want the facts of life. He wants his facts of life. Not facts looking back in reference to when he was born, but facts about the present and facts looking forward to when he will have love and marriage and children of his own.

"I want to know about me now and me in the future," says Bill, eager and honest. "And I want those left-out parts put in with plenty of details to make them plain."

Both boys and girls want to know about their own bodies and those of the opposite sex. About shape and form; about the changes that occur during adolescence; about what happens outside, and also inside, of the body out of sight:

"I'm terrible, I know," a thirteen-year-old girl confides. "But I'd like to see what a boy really looks like without bathing trunks or anything else on. I try to see when the water's gotten the outline to show, but I get to feeling too ashamed. Do you think you could draw it or show me a picture without any old fig leaf on?"

About menstruation: From thirteen-year-old Tony, "Just what happens to girls in certain parts of the month? My sister gets something wrong with her. When I asked about it, she said she had the curse. When I asked what that was she said, 'Shut up.'"

Tony was very serious. His knotted scowl betrayed apprehension. "Is it catching? Won't you please tell me something to make it more clear?"

From a girl not quite thirteen, "I know about ministration. That's what happens to women. Now I'd like to know about menstration or whatever it is that happens to men."

About seminal emissions, many a boy asks: "Are wet dreams normal?" with anxiety showing . . . "How often do you get them? If I lose too much will I get old while I'm young?"

About bodies in the grip of labor and birth: "Just where does the baby come out of?" with curiosity less evident than fear. "Is there really a big enough hole?" . . . And from a boy whose concern is of more practical nature, "Is there something particular you do to make a girl have twins or thripples? I simply gotta know so I can stay away from it. I plan to be a veterinary and they don't get rich quick. So one baby at a time's going to be enough for me."

Most tremendously important to both boys and girls are questions about making love and mating

With the plea for details again apparent, "How often?" . . . "How?" . . . "When?" . . . And, once more with a note of fear entering, "Do you lose your strength from it?"

But most frequently, with variations, over and over, "How does it feel?"