Author: Heather Corinna

Heather Corinna is the executive director of Scarleteen, the inclusive online resource for teen and young adult sexuality education and information she founded in 1998. She is the author of S.E.X.: The All-You-Need-to-Know Progressive Sexuality Guide to Get You Through High School and College; a co-founder of the All Girl Army; and director of the CONNECT sexual health outreach program for King County, which primarily serves homeless and transient youth. She is on the editorial board of the American Journal of Sexuality Education, a writer and contributing editor for the 2011 edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves, a member of the Board of Directors for NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, and her sexuality advice is also syndicated weekly at RH Reality Check. Heather was the winner of The Champions of Sexual Literacy Award for Grassroots Activism from the National Sexuality Resource Center/SFSU in 2007; in 2009 the winner of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, Western Region's Public Service Award and the Our Bodies, Ourselves' Women's Health Heroes Award. In 2011, Scarleteen won a Seattle Web Award for Best Nonprofit Website. A Chicago native, she now lives and works on an island in the Pacific Northwest.

When the Sweet Spot Becomes a Sore Spot

Q: I’m a 21-year-old lesbian. A problem has popped up in me and my girlfriend’s sex life. When we practice tribadism with just skin, after a while a very small raw spot will show up, bringing with it a sharp pain. Both of us have this problem. Neither of us is clean-shaven, but we do […]

Whose Vagina Is It, Anyway?

Q: I’m a 32-year-old woman being driven up the wall by my fiancé always saying that he can tell I’m playing with my toys when he’s at work because I’m loose that day. I swear to him up and down that I haven’t, and even tell him the last time that I have done something […]

If He Could Get a “Hot” Girl, Why Would He Want a Fat Girl?

In honor of Love Your Body Day (Wednesday, Oct.16), sex-and-relationships columnist Heather Corinna takes on standards of desirability around weight. Q: I’m very pretty, but overweight. Close to 200 lbs. A guy has expressed serious romantic interest in me. I know he’s usually attracted to much smaller girls. I find it very difficult to believe he […]

Can Sex “Just for Fun” Be Emotionally Healthy?

This week’s installment of Heather Corinna‘s sex-and-relationships advice column tackles the issue of casual sex. Q: So excited for this new blog spot! Can you discuss whether it’s emotionally healthy to have sex outside of relationships? I want to own my sexuality, but all of the advice around me seems to be no-sex-outside-of-relationships-or-marriage. I know this […]

The I-Don’t-Wanna-Use-Lube Blues

Q: Why don’t I produce enough natural lubricant during sex? There is nothing wrong with me physically. I’m 34 now, but I’ve always been like this! I’m envious of women that talk about how wet they get. Men always ask me why I don’t get that wet. I feel like something is wrong with me. […]

Can I Use the Pill By Itself?

As someone who grew up with Ms., I’m incredibly humbled and delighted to be coming in as their first online sexuality advice columnist. I’ve been providing sexuality education and advice from an inclusive, feminist perspective since the ’90s, primarily working with young people in their teens and 20s. But in a media climate in which […]

Safer Sex After 50

A new study finds women over 50 want help negotiating safer sex and need better conversations about sex with healthcare providers. This follows reports of increases in STIs amongst those over 45 over the last few years. Gasp! Women over 50 have sex! And not just inside decades-long marriages! (Figured I’d get that out of […]