By Crystal Ogar
Once in awhile on the Internet you stumble across a gem and MariaTalks.com is a website that wholly fits that criteria.
Maria Talks was developed by the AIDS Action Committee with funding from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The website talks about sexual health, protection, sexual violence, contraception, pregnancy and STD information for teens and young adults–not to mention a section dedicated to GLBTQ people.
Maria Talks says different is good and not to be afraid or embarrassed of your feelings or how you express yourself sexually. Maria Talks gives you the information you need if you’re ready to have sex or deciding to wait. It doesn’t lean one-way or the other.
The website gives teens information on how to know yourself and make sure you’re ready for this change in your life. Everything on the website is conversational and friendly. They even encourage teens to speak to their parents because they can be a wonderful resource for information, as well.
In addition, there are telephone help-lines that Maria Talks links you to if you don’t find exactly what you need on their site. It’s also interesting because you can “meet” Maria’s friends who include her aunt (an OB/GYN), 2 people who are GLBT, a friend who wants to abstain from sex, and others who are sexually involved. Clicking on one of their “profiles” will lead you to information relating to them, such as abstinence, LGBT issues or STDS.
Everyone knows that plenty of teens and young adults go to the wrong places for information about sex and sexual health. Maybe because they feel as though there’s no one to talk to who’s knowledgeable enough, so they’ll speak to their friends and people who are uninformed. Or maybe this type of information is being withheld from them due to their surroundings or religious/cultural backgrounds.
In a world that sexualizes young girls from birth and then criticizes and shames them when they seek out information about their sexuality, websites like this are amazing. However, there’s a campaign to get rid of MariaTalks.com because they believe the website is misleading young girls or encouraging sexual activity. Yet, in my opinion, there is nothing on MariaTalks.com that is misleading or uninformative.
Thankfully the website gives kids this vital information in a conversational way and answers questions about issues they may have. So I have to applaud MariaTalks.com for all the great work they’re doing and to keep it up. And to support MariaTalks.com go to http://www.change.org/petitions/save-sex-education-website-mariatalkscom to sign the petition to keep this wonderful website going.