Girl THOUGHTS...

into a shop and get them. Girls should feel alright about buying them, but we don’t.”
The third group we spoke to work on the ‘Undercover’ project with the Sheffield Centre for Sexual Health in Yorkshire.

“Condoms should be free and advertised regularly on TV,” unanimously voted the eight 15-19 year-olds. Rosie, one of the youngest in the group. is adamant: “Girls should be just as responsible as men for getting hold of condoms.”
On the subject of female condoms, most of the girls seemed familiar with these though their youth community work, but said they were difficult to use, with one of the Welsh girls describing them as “too much poch” - bother.
School sex education - a load of pants!
Zoe from the Respect project in Kent is due to start sixth-form college next year, which is the time, she says, when for girls and boys alike the pressure to have sex and make decisions

Sexual Self Respect team in kent with the YWCA’s girl volunteers, Morgan, Jo, Zoe and Steph.

around contraception and safer sex really kicks in. “But all the government wants is for us to get good grades,” she says. “They don’t care about educating us in relationships or sex.”
School sex education was the girls’ second-biggest area of concern after condoms. Comments included:

• “Sex talks in school are boring”
• “There isn’t any teacher I can talk to about sexual things”
• “None of my friends would have a clue about STIs from what we learn at school”
• “It’s embarrassing having SRE (Sex & Relationships Education) from your teachers, you feel inhibited to be open in front of them”
• “If you have boys in your class, they just take the piss and we don’t feel we can ask real questions without being laughed at”

Most of the girls in the Wales group attend mixed schools and colleges. They all said they were too embarrassed to talk openly about sexual health and condoms in front of boys for fear of being laughed at.
For this reason, the RUBY project was set up to provide a safe and easy atmosphere where the girls feel

uninhibited and able to ask awkward questions if they choose. “It’s better for us to learn about sex