Leslie Kantor
Leslie Kantor, MPH, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Vice President of Education, is a widely respected leader in the field of sexual and reproductive health, with over two decades of experience in sex education.
Blog Post List
October 29, 2014
By Leslie Kantor, Vice President of Education, Planned Parenthood Federation of America October marks Let’s Talk Month, aimed at getting families talking about sexuality and relationships. For those of you who think you’ve got this covered, think again. New research shows that while most parents are talking with their children, most of us aren’t talking often enough or in enough detail about critical topics that will help ensure that our children make healthy decisions. Planned Parenthood and New York University’s Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health commissioned a national survey...
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April 22, 2014
By Leslie Kantor, Vice President of Education, Planned Parenthood Federation of America If your teen is anything like mine, it can be nearly impossible to get him away from his phone! Knowing that it’s such an integral part of their lives, and that teens want to get information on their phones from trustworthy sources instantaneously, Planned Parenthood is giving them both what they want and what they need: an entertaining way to make plans for their futures, learn skills to resist peer pressure, make healthy decisions, and encourage them to talk to you — all while using their phones. Planned...
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February 5, 2013
“Where do babies come from?” That perfectly normal question from children has been striking fear in the hearts of some parents since our culture started allowing children to be seen AND heard. The question sometimes seems to come too soon ( why are you thinking about that already? ) and almost always at an inopportune moment (while in the car really is a typical time for kids to ask their parents). Kia’s Super Bowl commercial this year features a young child asking where babies come from, followed by an elaborate fictional answer concocted by his father. When the kid starts to question the...
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January 14, 2013
I vividly remember once overhearing my then-six-year-old son’s friend asking how he could get six-pack abs. I was shocked that these young boys were so concerned with their appearance and so aware of what the media was pushing as the ideal male body. Of even more concern, a strong desire to look good leads boys to act on their ideas about how bodies should appear. A recent study in Pediatrics found that more than 40 percent of boys in middle school and high school regularly exercise to increase muscle mass. Thirty-five percent said they used protein supplements, and six percent had...
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December 12, 2012
These days, dads change diapers, help with homework, and fix dinner for the kids. But there’s one area where their co-parenting duties are still often overlooked: talking with teens about sex and sexuality. As mothers, we know that parenting is not just our responsibility. Neither is talking with our children about sexuality. Still, most research looking at parents’ influence on their teens’ sexual behavior has focused mainly on mothers. But fathers make a real difference when they talk with teens about sex, too. A new review of studies in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American...
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October 31, 2012
Last week I was watching the popular TV show The Middle , and parents Mike and Frankie Heck were struggling to remember if they’d ever spoken to their kids about sex. “That’s what schools are for,” Frankie, the mom joked. Yikes! The good news is, unlike in the show, 90 percent of parents have talked to their children about topics related to sex, according to a Planned Parenthood nationally representative poll of more than 2,000 parents and teens. The survey also found that parents want help from schools getting these important messages across to young people, and that teens would also like...
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October 11, 2012
There are some universal truths about being a parent, and one of them is that when we try to talk with our teenagers, it can feel like we’re speaking in different languages. This is especially true when we’re talking to them about sex. Recently, Planned Parenthood , Family Circle magazine, and the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health at NYU (CLAFH) commissioned a survey looking at how parents and teens talk about sex and sexuality. We polled more than 2,000 parents and teens living in the same households, and the results quickly made one thing clear: what parents intend to say is...
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September 20, 2012
If there were an easy way to prevent cancer, you’d predict that people would run in droves to take advantage of it. That’s why people should be rushing to take advantage of the cancer-preventing human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. The HPV vaccine helps protect against the infection that can cause genital warts and cervical, anal, penis, and throat cancers. Yet only 35 percent of girls and one percent of boys have received all three doses of the vaccine needed for complete protection. Now, a recent study in the journal of AIDS provides even more compelling evidence in favor of this vaccine,...
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August 24, 2012
It’s that time of year when parents are busy with school shopping and taking our kids to the doctor for back-to-school checkups. If you have an older teen, you may want to consider adding one more task to your to-do list: talking about sex and contraception and helping him or her get the information and resources needed by a sexually active teen. The reality is that 63 percent of high school seniors have had sex, so it’s important that older teens know how to protect themselves from unintended pregnancy and STDs. This is information they need to have before heading off to college or starting...
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August 10, 2012
During my 20-plus years as a sex educator, I’ve heard a lot of misconceptions and outright bad information that teens pick up about sexuality and sexual behavior. The questions generally go something like this: Can I get pregnant from … pre-cum … oral sex … semen in a hot tub? Will birth control make me fat … sterile … depressed? One of the most memorable ones I’ve come across is the “Can Coke prevent pregnancy?” question. It’s an urban legend that has changed brands over the years, but has refused to go away. All you have to do is Google the phrase “will Mountain Dew” to see how widespread...
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July 26, 2012
When I was in college during the first years of the AIDS epidemic, I assumed that by the time I had a child, all kids would be taught about HIV in school. In the past 20 years, lots of evidence shows how HIV education helps young people make healthy decisions including delaying sex and using condoms when they do have sex. So, it is extremely frustrating that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey shows that the percentage of students nationwide being taught about HIV/AIDS has fallen by eight percent over the past 14 years. This month there’s been a...
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July 16, 2012
As the mother of a teen, I’ve approached that point in parenting where I’m compelled to spend much of the next several years concerned about the nature of my child’s relationships and when and whether they might involve sex. I know I’m hardly alone in this worry since, as a sex educator, I’ve spent much of my career addressing how other parents can help their kids make smart choices about sex. Yet I’m also clear that there are other, more disturbing, aspects of teen relationships that get less attention. Teen romantic relationships can be very intense, and sometimes, unfortunately, violence...
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