Meet Cassie.

She’s a 20-year-old journalism student at the U of O who loves to play the guitar. She’s also a self sworn virgin until marriage.

She drinks, smokes and gets low at parties, but you won’t find Cassie dropping her panties until there is a ring on her finger. No, she isn’t part of the Christian abstinence pledge program, the Silver Ring Thing. And no, this 5’ 7, 130 lbs curvaceous brunette isn’t just “too ugly to get laid.” Cassie is staying a virgin until marriage simply for herself.

“Sure, I like to fool around and make out with guys, but I won’t let it go too far,” Cassie says.

Her guy friends even joke around, calling her a ‘slutty virgin’. A male friend of Cassie’s says, “She will lead you on then cut you off right when you really want it.”

After the pregnancy pact of the 17 teens at Gloucester High School hit the web a few days ago, it’s got me thinking, when is the right time to lose your virginity? Is Cassie's strategy so bad?

And what counts as virginity? For Cassie, oral sex is out of the question, but many young women don’t think twice about it, claiming if there is no penetration then it’s not sex.

According to a survey by College Humor, most teens lose their virginity at age 17. However, when you look at the statistics by state, the average age is 15 in Oregon. So freshmen year of high school? At peak awkwardness, when pimples are in full stage and hormones are raging, I guess it makes sense?

More alarming is that the same survey shows that 35% of people said they didn’t use a condom the first time. There seems to be an urban myth that you can’t get pregnant on your first time. 
 

Cassie says she isn’t worried about getting pregnant, instead she worries about the countless STD’s out there. According to Stanford University's Sexual Health Peer Resource Center, one in four college students has a STD.

“I don’t care if people think I’m a tease,”  Cassie say. “I know I’m not a whore, and I’m not going to do a guy just to wake up the next day hating myself.”