From the Editor »

Wel­come back for the 2^nd issue of Baby­girlz Mag­a­zine.  March 7, 2010, was the offi­cial launch date, and keep­ing in line with lucky num­ber 7, here we are, yet again! 

As of right now, a bi-monthly pub­li­ca­tion, is being deliv­ered; this month, how­ever, we will mon­i­tor the site to see if a quar­terly release would be more effec­tive.  Should we take the quar­terly route, new con­tent would be pub­lished four times, yearly – every three months.  We will def­i­nitely, keep you posted.    

 If you stopped by dur­ing our offi­cial launch in March, then you notice that we now have a new inter­face – accom­pa­nied by the orig­i­nal tagline “Growth Beyond Bound­aries” because we believe that there is growth beyond bound­aries – those set by you, as well as the ones often set by soci­ety.  The key is to: Be thank­ful, give 100%, in all that you take on, always have faith in your­self, make healthy choices about those you allow in your cir­cle, believe that you can do any­thing you set your mind to, and have no fear of explor­ing your greatness. 

With great­ness in mind, take a moment to stop by Dawn Williams’ “His­tor­i­cal Hot Mama” page.  Dawn is in the begin­ning stages of com­pil­ing a port­fo­lio of GREAT women with AMAZING his­tory, that you can be proud of.   See exactly why you were cre­ated to sur­vive, and des­tined to thrive!

Included In This Issue:

Three El Cer­rito High School stu­dents con­tributed with sto­ries of life, and life lessons:  Tacreisha Chawn­tae Carter pro­vides a les­son on mat­ters of the heart and how young women should never allow mis­treat­ment, at the hands of another.  Erika Benton-Martin, shares insight on the impor­tance of first impres­sions and how they can work both for you…and against you.  Finally, Tyler Clark, can­didly shares with you a time in life where she made the wrong choices in friend­ships, and how she had to regain the trust of her mother because of it.  “Thank you, girlz!”     

Wel­come & Enjoy!

Traci L. Lee, Editor-in-Chief

General »

Many of us have been there. Regret­ting the time we lost our vir­gin­ity. Regret­ting the per­son who we lost it to…the sur­round­ing circumstances…everything. But in that moment of ner­vous cop­u­la­tion, we cross over to another world, and we can never go back. Or can we? The answer is yes. Yes, you CAN take back your virginity!

Through­out my years of being a youth men­tor, I’ve come across a num­ber of teenage girls who har­bored guilt, shame and regret over los­ing their vir­gin­ity. Some told of instances where the expe­ri­ence was not at all plea­sur­able, and to top it off, the guy involved told all his friends. Now the girl feels embar­rassed, and she can’t even say that she enjoyed los­ing her vir­gin­ity. When the next guy shows inter­est in her, she’s guarded. She decides not to have sex with him. But sur­pris­ingly, he throws the past in her face, “You can have sex with him, but you can’t have it with me?” She reluc­tantly gives in. Here begins a ter­ri­ble cycle. A cycle of objec­ti­fy­ing one­self based on the wants of guys…complying with sex because, “I’ve already done it, every­one knows, I may as well keep doing it” or “It makes the boys like me.” Don’t be caught in this tan­gled web of self-destruction. It can only lead to lack of self-confidence and emo­tional dis­tress. Allow­ing sex into your life is already an emo­tional feat. You are in no con­di­tion to con­tinue to be faced with life­long, adult issues. Remem­ber, sex can lead to more per­ma­nent things, such as preg­nancy or sex­u­ally trans­mit­ted dis­eases and infections.

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