Living your best life means living without fear. It means living with confidence. It means being authentically you. In partnership with the new XOXO condom by Trojan, we are bringing you the passionate words of strong women who want to encourage you to trust yourself and live your life to its fullest.
When I was younger, I had daily battles with my body. I would cry in front of mirrors before class and cringe at the number on the scale, because I believed that other people would judge me based on the way that I looked.
Back then, learning to love myself felt like an impossible task. But over the years, after spending plenty of time pampering my body and exploring my sexuality, I’ve finally reached a point where I can say I’m comfortable inside of my own skin.
That’s why I’m no longer afraid to lean in for the first kiss or to ask my crush back to my place. I’m no longer embarrassed to give my friends juicy details about the new boyfriend I hooked up with for the first time. And I’m no longer shy about walking up to a cashier to buy a pack of condoms or a bottle of lubricant.
In fact, I carry around XOXO by Trojan in my purse everywhere I go, whether it’s on a first date or a tenth date, because I realize there’s no shame in preparing for sex. There’s nothing wrong with having a romantic night in bed as long as I stay safe. As long as I do the responsible thing and carry around protection.
After all, I don’t rely on anyone else in my life to pay my rent, to bring me happiness, or to make me feel beautiful so I’ll continue to have that mindset when it comes to sex. I’ll continue to trust myself and do the responsible thing. I never want to take the risk of not being prepared, so I’ll carry protection around myself.
I consider myself to be an independent, confident woman, because I appreciate my body enough to see what a beautiful act sex is, how blissful it can be. I love my body and if I want to share it with someone, I can.
Now that I’ve matured and am finally learning to love my skin and bones, I realize that sex is a great way to thank my body, to give it a well needed release after all of the time it spends keeping me healthy. It’s the best way to get rid of all of the stress that I’d been bottling up inside.
Of course, there are still days when I struggle with my reflection. There are days when I have the urge to turn the lights off during sex to hide my face. Or when I want to leave my shirt on to cover up my stomach and hips.
But then I remember everything that my body is capable of doing for me. I remember that I’m proud of the way that my lungs keep me breathing and my legs keep me standing. I remember that I have nothing to be embarrassed about, even if I have stretch marks and pimple scars, because every inch of me is filled with beauty.
Now that I have learned to better trust my body and everything it can do for me, I realize that sex is something to be embraced, not something to be ashamed of and only talked about behind closed doors.
There’s nothing wrong with craving intimacy. With carrying condoms. With initiating a kiss or an intimate encounter. There’s nothing wrong with having a positive attitude about sex.
After all, sex brings people together and the only thing more beautiful than one body is two. 
This post brought to you the new XOXO condom by Trojan
