Virginity: What Does It Mean to You?

"What does losing your virginity mean to you?" asks the website for the Vagina Vérité project.

Billing itself as an 'unabashed exploration of the plain, ordinary, mysterious matter of vaginas," it has a section devoted entirely to stories about virginity loss.

Not surprisingly, most of the posts are from women. What was surprising was that almost everyone defines losing your virginity as intercourse. But that's another conversation.

Here are some excerpts:

"My first time was a little weird...My partner had no clue until afterwards that i was still a virgin, yea it did hurt but it wasn't like an extreme pain you get used to after the first like 5 minutes and with me there was no blood [lost at 14]"

'My first bf was aware of my virginity, and put up a very convincing front that it didn't matter to him. Boy was I ever wrong. ... At this point in time, he had gotten back together with his ex-gf while we were a thing (I was oblivious), which means that even while being with her, he still tried to take my virginity.[still virgin at 22]"

"It meant alot to me. I made sure it was the right guy and the right time before I did. There is alot of responsibility that goes along with sex.[lost at 16]"

"He was gentle and loving and I was very relieved it felt so right. Problem number one came about 6weeks later when I found out I was pregnant...We used a condom, but obviously it didn't work for me. [lost at 17]"

"I expected a new world to open for me... I am a man and at 16 I couldn't wait any longer, so I went to a prostitute, who made a bad job of it..[one of the few guys]