Here is an email I sent to all my local councillors:

Hello, my name is Iona Grant and I am living in Helensburgh. Please consider my suggestion, as I believe it is a very important, although ignored issue affecting many teenagers across the country, even the world, and I believe we can make a real difference.

Here is my suggestion: Sex education has improved vastly all over the UK; I think you will agree with me on that. Children are now taught much more, from the ages of 11 in Primary school, and in Social Education in the Academy. They are taught about changes in the body, periods, and sex. However there is a vitally important thing that is forgotten. Masturbation. This is something which affects everybody, sometimes from as young as five years old, for many many years. It is seen as taboo. Masturbation is something never discussed between friends, and often not mentioned between lovers. Vibrators are a clandestine purchase, smuggled away in the backs of drawers. And yet we have one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the world.

Instead of trying to convince teenagers to use protection and be careful, why not advocate self pleasure? It is clear, that making self love more important will lead to self respect, and a willingness to leave sex until they understand themselves and their body as well as possible. This is particularly important for girls, as female anatomy is not properly taught, and many girls I know (I am in 6th year) do not even know what a clitoris is. That is ridiculous. That a girl does not even know her main source of pleasure, at 16 and 17 years old- is it not now obvious why they turn to having sex at an early age? A desire for sexual fulfillment which could so easily be acheived by knowing how to masturbate. The dread and worry after finding her cervix for the first time can lead to a girl thinking she has cancer. This is not necessary! Why aren’t we taught this?

I have decided to start a mini revolution of sorts amongst my friends and classmates. I will freely talk about masturbation and I will love my body, raise my self esteem and that of other girls. Low self esteem is a hidden problem in modern society. But it can be changed! Many girls, once I talk to them a while about loving themselves, the way they view their body- they finally realise how they are not too fat, the size difference in their breasts is not so strange, their stretchmarks do not make them ugly!

I have one friend, who didn’t want me to say her name, but agreed to share her problem. She is 16 years old. She has one breast one cup size bigger than the other. She can’t watch people kiss or have sex in movies. She thought masturbation was wrong. I showed her some websites such as scarleteen.com which is a very good site for sex education. I have had to walk her through masturbation via MSN. Now she is trying to have her first orgasm, she enjoys masturbation, and you wouldn’t believe how much more confident she is, how much she now loves her body. She is positive now, whereas before she thought she was worthless. She thought she was worthless.

This is where I need your help, and that of other people who can give us a voice. We need a program in schools, and in youth clubs of self love and masturbation. We need to be given a proper guide to knowing our own bodies, something which can make us more confident and even save lives. I cannot talk to every single girl in Helensburgh about this, however much I would love to. With your help, we can make a difference. We can help girls love themselves, and to respect their bodies. I am no feminist, I am no neo-hippy. This is a relevant and vital yet ignored issue.

Thank you for reading and considering my point. I truly hope that you will help publicise this issue and stop masturbation from being a taboo, once and for all! It is time for a change in our views of self pleasure. Please help me put this in motion. I await your reply.