In honor of "Let's Talk" month, the Candie's Foundation launched the America, Wake Up PSA campaign, which is designed to encourage teens and adults to talk about sex and teen pregnancy.  One of the PSAs aired this past Monday night following an episode of the wildly popular Gossip Girl, with advance press appearing in the Monday issue of USA Today to the tune of a full page ad. 

But...

Those of you wondering if your memory is going need not fear - you did not in fact see the ad anywhere in Monday's edition of USA Today.  In fact, it was pulled by USA Today on Friday afternoon out of fear of offending its readers.

Now, I'm the last person to impugn the rights of freedom of speech - USA Today has the right to do and print whatever they deem appropriate.  Their 11th hour rejection of the ad doesn't make them bad or unfair.  Instead, I'd argue that it just makes them gigantic 'fraidy cats.  For a major newspaper to reject an ad that simply encourages talking to your kids about sex based on the rationale that it might offend people shows just how inflammatory this issue has gotten.  What's worse, it throws into sharp relief just how much work we still have ahead of us.

Again USA Today has the right to approve/ reject anything they want.  But if it's a matter of offending their readership, in my humble opinion there are a thousand things more offensive than having an honest conversation with your kids about sex.  

But that's just me.

If you thought dealing with Jeff Conaway's addiction (not to mention his girlfriend) on "Celebrity Rehab" was a daunting task, wait until you see this. Dr. Drew is going to help teens and parents talk about sex.

"Sex...with Mom and Dad" premieres Monday on MTV. And not a moment too soon.

We hear it constantly from teens and young adults—parents have more influence over their kids' sex lives than anything else. Certainly more influence than parents themselves think they have, and also more influence than media, friends, school, religion or anything else for that matter. Which is good—if you have parents who know how to talk about sex, love, values, and relationships or who at least care enough to make sure the messages their kids get from them about these issues are rooted in self-respect and responsibility. But that's not always as easy as it sounds. After all, it can be hard to talk about this stuff—embarrassing, awkward, confusing. Parents may feel that they need to be experts (not true) or that their own past calls their authority into question (also not true). Kids may feel weird about these conversations (almost always true) and may resist a parent's efforts to start a discussion (you can bank on this one) or their own desire to have their questions answered. All of which can lead to misinformation, bad choices, family turmoil, and more.

So what can you do? Short of enlisting the expert advice of Dr. Drew Pinsky—not just a TV doc but an actual board certified, medical school-teaching, honest-to goodness physician, who incidentally has teenage children of his own—you can actually do quite a bit. We have some handy, dandy tips for parents to get you started. The most important thing is to remember that it's not The Talk - but rather a conversation that lasts a lifetime. Age-appropriate information about feelings and body parts, honest discussions about what's acceptable in your family (which is often very different than what's acceptable in Hollywood or even among peers), and wide-ranging conversations about dreams for the future (and what would stand in the way of those dreams, like say too-early parenthood for example) are important.

Tune in next Monday at 7p ET/PT. Let us know what you think.

In an effort to get the word out about the StayTV Mash Up contest, I came across a really great web resource, Teens Today With Vanessa Van Petten.  Vanessa, a self-described "Gen Y'er", is an author, teen mentor, and general proponent of getting teens informed about the risk of teen pregnancy - you can see why we like her!  We also love her site and she was gracious enough to give us a little shout out...so, to return the favor, get yourself to Teens Today and read her latest entry about how parents can talk to teens about sex, love, and relationships.  And, if you can't bear to navigate away from Pregnant Pause for even a second, here is a clip of the vlog (video blog) that accompanies the post: