EVERY BOY I EVER KISSED

Every day, 120 million acts of sexual intercourse take place around the world. So why was it so hard for Nellwyn Lampert to lose her virginity?

A bold step toward a new cultural narrative around sex

Sex was supposed to be easy. It was supposed to be fun, liberating, and empowering for a girl who'd been brought up thinking the battle for sexual equality had been won. But for Nellwyn Lampert, losing her virginity would turn out to be anything but simple. Whether she was being confronted with porn-induced erectile dysfunction or other crises of masculinity, nothing went according to plan in the bedroom. Instead, Nellwyn had to learn to navigate the realities of sexual liberation, female empowerment, and masculinity all on her own.

In this coming-of-age memoir, Nellwyn looks back on her experiences with humour and insight to explore what true liberation and empowerment may look like for today's young women. Her many unexpected adventures will prompt reflection on a bigger question: What does it mean when our experiences fail to live up to who we think we should be as liberated, postmodern women.

Nellwyn Lampert was raised by a beautiful, liberated, single mother, who gave her teenaged daughter a condom and told her to have fun. Years later, the wrapper on that condom was ragged and well-traveled, but still unopened. Despite the public perception that today's millennials are living it up both in and out of the bedroom, the reality is that just because technology – and terminology – have changed, coming of age sexually hasn't gotten any easier.

Every Boy I Ever Kissed is Lampert's candid account of the surprising difficulties she encountered as she tried, with increasing determination, to lose her virginity. From porn-induced erectile dysfunction to purity pledges, sexting to webcams, everything Lampert had been told would happen – sexually speaking – didn't, and everything no one prepared her for did.

Combining an entertaining personal story with sociological investigation and calling out the myths that lead us astray, Every Boy I Ever Kissed is a bold step towards a new cultural narrative around sex. Lampert takes us on a memorable journey through aborted attempts at intimacy that reflect a bigger question: What does it mean when our personal experiences fail to reflect our vision of who we should be as liberated, postmodern women?

With spot-on instinct, Lampert is a fresh voice in the “love memoir” genre – earnest and self-effacing, snarky and self-aware as she dissects her experiences. With her millennial update on a sexual coming-of-age classic, Lampert treads her own ground while paying homage to the comfort and familiarity of the stories that preceded her.

Every Boy I Ever Kissed will appeal to readers who love the frankness of Caitlin Moran, the argument of Rachel Hills' Sex Myth, the titillation of Fifty Shades of Grey, and the drama of “Sex and the City.”

NELLWYN LAMPERT has a degree in playwriting from York University and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of King's College. She writes literature study guides for BookRags.com and maintains a lifestyle blog in her own name.