Let's look at three widely known YA authors and the way they use sexual scenes: John Green, Meg Cabot, and Patricia McCormick.

According to a recent study, “Real Girls, Real Pressure: A National Report on the State of Self-Esteem,” researchers found that 75% of  young women between the ages of 8-17 feel as if they do not “measure up” and view sex as a means to increase their value.

Thus what I hope to lay out in this article is not an iron-clad rule for when you should become intimate in a relationship. Instead what I aim to present today is a case for delaying intimacy in a relationship and taking it slower – leaving the interpretation of what “slower” means up to each individual.