Last Friday, Tyra Banks shared findings from a study her show conducted on the social and sexual experiences of 10,000 young women.

Among the findings:

* On average, girls are losing their virginity at 15 years of age.
* 14 percent of teens who are having sex say they’re doing it at school.
* 52 percent of survey respondents say they do not use protection when having sex.
* One in three says she fears having a sexually transmitted disease.
* 24 percent of teens with STDs say they still have unprotected sex.

Tyra was evidently surprised by these datapoints. Not surprisingly, I’m not. What Tyra’s show found mirrored what Abigail and I uncovered reporting and writing Restless Virgins. Doesn’t this comment, which Tyra later made to Matt Lauer on the Today show, sound familiar?

“[Teens] are not talking to their parents; they’re embarrassed to talk to their parents,” Banks said. “And more than them being embarrassed to talk to their parents, their parents are embarrassed to talk to them. So they’re finding all [about] sex education with their friends, with their peers.”

Tyra’s findings strengthen the message we’ve been trying to get out for the past 14 months since our book first came out: many kids are engaging in risky behavior, and many parents are sitting by, passively. It’s wonderful that Tyra is taking this issue to heart, and using her popular tv show to broadcast the issue. But more than sounding the alarm she - and we - need to do something.

There’s no one answer - it’s hard to talk about sex! - and certainly we’ve put forth many ideas here. But we need more. So if you have one you want to share, please email us.

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