Am I a slut?

Dear Advice Girl,

I’m 14 and I have a thing with hooking up with random guys. I’ve made out with 8 guys. I was only dating one of them before I kissed them and all of the others I met either the day of or the day before. Would that make me a slut?

Signed,
   Karissa

Dear Karissa,

“Slut” is a really, really dangerous word. I never use it, and I don’t think you should, either. It’s like a tattoo: once it gets under your skin, you can never get rid of it – and people will always use it to judge you and make assumptions about what you’re like. If you’ve ever seen a girl’s reputation get totally smashed because she made out with one guy, then you know what I’m talking about.

So I can’t tell you if you qualify for the S-word or not. But what I’m worried about, Karissa, is what all these random hookups are doing to you. It sounds like all that kissing has left you unhappy and confused about what kind of person you really are. That’s no surprise – it’s pretty much exactly what happens to everyone in your situation.

And you should be worried about your reputation, too. Not because the people who spread gossip know anything about anything – but because your actions could seriously affect the way people see you for the next couple of years. And that’s just something you don’t want to screw around with. So do yourself a favor and slow down on the random hookups.