A slave to your hormones, having your first kiss and losing your virginity feel like two of the most important things you can do when you’re young. That is, until you grow up and realize it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Experimenting with your sexuality at that age, and probably every age after, is like playing with fire and enjoying the feeling of being burned. But it isn’t all sloppy kisses and dry humping; as a teenager you can experience some of the most romantic and passionate moments of your life. Teens fall in love often, and they fall in love hard, just like these heroes and heroines…
Cruel Intentions
According to Cruel Intention’s Kathryn Merteuil, when it comes to first base, you must always practice on your friends. How else do you think girls learn? Now close your eyes and wet your lips. And then watch the spoof from Not Another Teen Movie…
The Virgin Suicides
The Virgin Suicides tells the melancholy tale of the young and beautiful Lisbon sisters who are negotiating their way through puberty, under the very strict and oppressively Catholic rule of their parents. “Don’t let it die a virgin,” says one of the girls’ prom dates as he put his finger through a smoke ring. Tragically, 4/5 do.
Kids
As Kids‘ horrible, horny protagonist Telly, once said, “When you’re young, not much matters. When you find something you care about, then that’s all you got. When you go to sleep at night, you dream of pussy. When you wake up, it’s the same thing. It’s there in your face. You can’t escape it. Sometimes when you’re young, the only place to go is inside. That’s just it – fucking is what I love. Take that away from me and I really got nothing.” Telly is 16 years old, HIV positive, and loves nothing more than sleeping with virgins. While it’s almost too painful to watch, Larry Clark’s portrayal of teenage sex is probably one of the most poignant and terrifying examples in cinema history.
Mean Girls
From making out with a hotdog (it was one time!!!) to throwing up all over the guy you’re about to kiss, Mean Girls charts the various ways in which things can go wrong when you’re getting your freak on. Let this be a warning.
American Pie
While Cecile had Kathryn to practice kissing on, Jim had a warm apple pie. After being told that 3rd base feels like America’s favorite dessert, Jim comes home to find one freshly baked by his mother.
Blue is the Warmest Color
They say you never get over your first love, which couldn’t be truer for Adele Exarchopoulos’ character in Blue Is the Warmest Color. In the midst of struggling with her sexuality and dealing with her homophobic friends, Adele meets the elusive Emma, and it’s love. A love that’s deep and pure, but as another saying goes – or maybe it was a Nelly Furtado lyric – all good things come to an end.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
One of most touching romances in recent cinema, is the relationship between Emma Watson and Logan Lerman’s characters in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Like fruit loops in a world of cheerios, Sam and Charlie are high school misfits. Both are victims of sexual abuse, which makes their emotional bond so unique. While they never actually consummate their love in the film, romance is in the air in the most touching way possible.
10 Things I Hate About You
“There’s a difference between like and love,” says, Bianca Straford, the most popular girl at Padua High, “Because I like my Sketchers but I love my Prada backpack.” In a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, 10 Things I Hate About You tells the tale of the Stratford sisters. Unable to date until her older sister Kat does, Bianca does everything she can to set her sister up. Step in bad boy Heath Ledger who sweeps her off her feet. When life gives you paintballing, make sure you fall in love.
Heathers
Captivated by the dark and dreamy J.D. and bored of being in her scrunchie’d out mean girl clique, Veronica Sawyer falls in love. After a game of strip croquet J.D. and Veronica begin plotting against the Heathers. Theirs is the kind of love that racks up a body count.
Never Been Kissed
From first kisses to finally kissed, Drew Barrymore stars as undercover journo, Josie, who goes back to high school to work on an exposé. The only problems are: she’s painfully uncool, and she’s never ever been kissed. That is until she falls in love with her dreamy high school teacher and smooches him on the football field.
Credits
Text Tish Weinstock