Sex is a natural part of life. Humans do it. Animals do it. Plants, in their own way, do it too. Yet, shame around sex and sexuality still prevails, and that's putting young lives at risk. An article published Friday by the MIT Technology Review found that youth in rural states aren't getting the potentially life-saving HPV vaccine, in part because of the stigma attached to sexual activity among teens.

Depending on your teenagers age and the people they hang out with, you will probably find that they have been thinking about or exploring sex and sexual relationships. During the later teenage stages, sex becomes a big deal and each teenager will approach it differently. Young people are talking about, thinking about and having sex.

I cringe when I think back to some of the sex I had as a teenager. There are a lot of reasons why it's so uncomfortable to remember — partly because it was so damn awkward a lot of the time and partly because a lot of the sex I had then was, frankly, terrible. But I didn't realize I could ask for more. Nikki Goldstein tells Bustle. It is so important to talk about sex, and I know that now.