First of all, virginity is a social construct created by a patriarchal structure to commodify female bodies. As true as that may be, I would probably give my left knee cap to snatch mine back from the raggedy teenaged boy I gave it to.
Young, vulnerable, and overflowing with hormones I didn't yet understand, unprepared would be an understatement when it comes to describing my first time.
While many of us "popped our cherry" way before we knew exactly how a cherry should be popped, Angela Simmons says she waited until she was almost 30 to have sex for the first time, and although the reality star had an advantage of adulthood when it came to losing her virginity, one thing that she didn't have was privacy; this was especially true after becoming pregnant.
On a recent episode of Dr. Oz, Angela explained how she survived going from "a virgin to pregnant" in the public eye, and according to her, it wasn't easy. She explained:
"Well, I publicly spoke about it and a lot of people knew that I was a virgin and I waited until I was like 28, and I went from virgin to pregnant. So it was a lot and it was in public. A lot of people were like, 'Were you lying or what happened?' But it just happened really quick for me."
Angela welcomed her first child with her late ex-boyfriend, Sutton Tennyson, who was tragically shot and killed last November in Atlanta. In an interview with The Real shortly after her son's birth, the now 32-year-old Growing Up Hip-Hop star said that although she originally planned to stay abstinent until marriage, love had other plans. She explained:
"Well, you know what? I had a plan. The plan didn't work out. And you can't always plan everything. You know, I met the love of my life and we got engaged. And I waited until 28. I mean, I really wanted to wait and it just so happens. It happened within that first little boom."
For Angela, everything happened so quickly, she barely had time to catch her breath, let alone prepare for the immense media storm that followed her pregnancy announcement. She went on to explain that one of the hardest parts about her situation was telling her dad, who responded in a way that she didn't expect:
"He was just calm. He was just like, 'OK, I'm this guy. You know my arms are open to you. I'm not going to be mad.' I was just scared and in that moment, of course, I'm crying because I felt like I let him down and the last thing I wanted to do was let down my father or my family. So, for me, it just meant a lot that he was open arms and were there for me."
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Featured image by Instagram/@AngelaSimmons.