Adolescents often choose media personalities as the standard for how they should look, so they are often disappointed by what they see in the mirror. They may be especially dissatisfied when the mainstream media does not portray or does not positively portray physical characteristics the teens see in the mirror, such as color of skin, type or hair, shape of eyes, height, or body shape. Experiencing pleasure and release from sexual tension Sensuality allows a person to experience pleasure when certain parts of the body are touched. People also experience sensual pleasure from taste, touch, sight, hearing, and smell as part of being alive. The need to be touched and held by others in loving, caring ways is often referred to as skin hunger .
Adolescents typically receive considerably less touch from their parents than do younger children.
Many teens satisfy their skin hunger through close physical contact with peers. Sexual intercourse may sometimes result from a teen s need to be held, rather than from sexual desire. The unexplained mechanism responsible for sexual attraction rests in the brain, not in the genitalia. The brain also gives people the capacity to have fantasies about sexual behaviors and experiences. Adolescents often need help understanding that sexual fantasy is normal and that one does not have to act upon sexual fantasies.