Peggy Orenstein's Girls and Sex draws on extensive interviews with young women ages fifteen to twenty to examine how girls navigate sexual encounters in contemporary America. Orenstein, a journalist who has written about girls' development for decades, explores hookup culture, assault, pornography's influence, and the complicated terrain of intimacy. She finds girls caught between contradictory demands: to be sexy but not slutty, to be free but to maintain reputation. Many girls she interviews describe encounters that leave them feeling used, but struggle to articulate what they wanted or why they went along. Orenstein examines how inadequate sex education leaves girls without vocabulary for pleasure or consent. She looks at how social media amplifies surveillance and performance. Girls and Sex is not moralistic; Orenstein respects girls' desires and agency while documenting the obstacles they face. She profiles educators and parents working to give girls better tools. The book is researched rigorously but written accessibly, with Orenstein's characteristic blend of empathy and analysis. Essential reading for parents, educators, and anyone seeking to understand young women's sexual experiences beyond media caricatures of either liberation or victimhood.