February 2017

Plus: confronting sexual harassment, “My Life Was Over” share student recounts their “Talk” cyberbullying story approaches, Birds and Bees and explaining What do schools consent really teach?

Spilling Secrets Uncovering topics that shouldn’t be

EDITOR'S NOTE

No More Shame

s soon as I accepted this position as Managing Editor, I knew I would eventually oversee an issue delving into the uncomfortable topic of sex education, child Aabuse, and sexual harassment and cyber-bullying. I haven’t been discouraged by the embarrassed snickering when I introduced the topic to some, but I was surprised by the overwhelming encouragement from the community to spearhead this issue. The truth is that these are real issues teachers, parents, teens, and kids face. I was four years old when I was first sexually abused, and the abuse lasted for four years unbeknownst to my parents. Now as a parent, I can easily see how” the abuse was undetectable. My secret horrified and grieved my parents when I finally told them. I didn’t have the courage to tell my parents until I was a senior in high school, but by then the abuse had affected my personality, the way I coped with the anxieties of my life, my studies, and how I interacted with others and accepted peer sexual harassment. I had been living in pain and shame for something that wasn’t my fault. I’m sure any parent can understand my current fears of something like this happening to my children, but it’s not just my own children I want to protect. Every child and teen deserves proper protection and advocacy from their parents and schools. Therefore, this issue is meant to educate and help parents, teachers, and administrators do just that. Students, if you or someone you know is going through this type of abuse, please turn to pg 38. On pg 54 you’ll find a feature about the different developmental stages of children and how to talk to your children about their changing bodies. On pg 48, we share the true story of a Beijing student who was cyberbullied and, due to identify theft, was also accused of sexually harrassing his peers. For parents with young children, we found books that could help with these very tough topics (pg 36). We didn’t want to leave the whole issue in such a serious mood, so we also have some light-hearted columns, including luxury gifts for Valentine’s Day (pg 17), a great meal for an at home date night (pg 22), and very cool projects by ISB students (pg 40).

Vanessa Jencks “ Managing Editor CONTENTSFebruary 2017 22

14 29 ”LIVING 14 Indulge 42 Marvelous Mom Amber Meyer turns heads at Catherine de France Meet Jen Pohland and daughter Delilah at The SLab 16 Talking Shop 44 West Meets East Deershop chocolate helps in more ways than one Parents give us “The Talk” 17 Shopping Roundup 46 The Echo Chamber with luxury this Valentine’s Day Ember Swift shares about the unicorn with the rainbow horn 47 Alternate Routes Sharenting with teens in mind DINING 20 Dining Out The Kurbonov brothers test out Din Tai Fung FEATURES 22 for Thought 48 “My Life Was Over” The Howes cook up an at-home date night One student recounts the cyberbullying story that rocked his life. 54 Protect Us, Teach Us Dr. George Hu explains how parents can protect their children HEALTH from abuse 25 The Natural Path TCM’s outlook on the monthly cycle 24 Mind Over Matter ESSENTIALS Dr. Murphy on psychologically-safe sex 2 Editor’s Note 28 From the Blog 6 What’s New Is menstrual talk really taboo in China? 8 Events 13 New Arrivals 58 The Circuit LEARNING 56 Favorites 29 Schooled WAB and FCD show us their sex ed programs 33 Tech Corner Avoid identity theft or wo