Who do you get relationship advice from?  Whether it’s your mom, dad, aunt, uncle, sibling, a friend, or someone else, it can be really helpful to hear from those who have been in relationships. In this video we get to hear teens talk about who they’ve gotten the best advice from and what they’ve learned from their dating experiences.

Want to hear more? We asked the teens featured in this video to tell us more about healthy relationships and the best relationship advice they've ever been given. Here's what they had to say.

Best Advice
By Edith C.

The best relationship advice I have ever received has been “Take your time.” Those three simple words have made a HUGE difference. In this day and age, teens are always rushing… rushing to get ready, rushing to eat, rushing to grow up. But sometimes we just need to stop and take things slowly.

In a relationship, it is incredibly important to just slow down and think about your surroundings. If we just hurry through a relationship we might just end up making some mistakes that we might eventually regret. I’m not saying that all mistakes are bad, since they do help us learn. But some of those mistakes are avoidable, and others are much more severe than they seem. By taking our time we are able to stop and think things through. We are able to see if the person we are with is really the person we want to be with. Also by taking your time you are able to have control of the relationship.

I have seen so many of my friends get pressured into doing things in a relationship they’d rather not do.  I think this is because they did not take the time to evaluate what they were getting into. If we take our time we are likely to avoid these situations. It is simple advice, but it has worked out very well for me. Take your time. These three simple words can go a long way.

Edith is 17 years old and lives in San Diego, California. She enjoys acting and singing and loves discovering new music. On the weekend, you'll most likely find her rocking out at a concert. Her role model is her sister because she taught her everything she knows today.  Got a question for Amanda? Email us!

What the best relationship advice you've ever received?
Alejandro A.

When it comes to relationship advice, it seems everyone’s willing to voice their opinions as if they are THE authority figures on love. However, the best advice I ever received wasn’t from a parent or older sibling, but rather my own friend and fellow teenager. I was talking to this girl I liked, and I had been really nervous because we had been “dating” for a while but I wanted to become exclusive.  I was clearly a nervous wreck, and my friend was trying to calm me down. She said, “Just go with the flow…”

Now while this sounds like a typical Jeff Bridges line, it has been one of the most important relationship mantras I’ve ever heard. If you think about it, trying to force a relationship in the first place more or less dooms it to fail. Trying to impress the girl never works, because girls are smart enough to see right through that game. I believe that people are naturally attracted to one another, and if they just allow things to happen naturally, everything will fall into place. This not only applies to the start of relationships, but also as one grows and develops. Stages like when to say “I love you” or to start becoming more intimate are awkward to begin with, let alone if they are forced.  If the nature of the relationship is ready for those steps, it will.

Luckily, I stopped worrying about becoming exclusive and focused more on the girl I was dating.

She ended up asking me to be her boyfriend, because she had felt so comfortable around me. She was glad that I hadn’t pushed her into anything. So, I know it’s easy to get nervous and antsy when dealing with a relationship, but patience is very important to have and never under appreciated.

Alejandro is a freshman at NYU, studying Biology and Chemical Engineering. He loves musical theatre, playing ultimate Frisbee, and being romantic.His jokes are also really cheesy. Got a question for Alejandro? Email us!

What’s the best relationship advice you've received?
by Amanda P.

The best relationship advice I’ve ever received came from my mom, and has been repeated to me over and over by mothers everywhere.  They all shared the opinion that we should take our time when getting involved in romantic relationships so that they won’t interfere with serious decisions we have to make while in high school and college.

After high school graduation, I knew a lot of girls who were determined to stay with their boyfriends, so they applied to the same colleges.  Other girls kept boyfriends from their home towns and went back home to visit so much, they weren’t involved in their college communities at all. Also, too many girls want to get married before they have time to discover themselves and their true passions.  Nowadays there is so much pressure to fall in love early, and so many of us enter serious relationships because of the title and not because of the compatibility.  So, my mom advised me to focus on myself first and casually date, but I don’t need to get married young.

School is supposed to be the time where we meet tons of different people and figure out who we are and what we are interested in.  And that’s hard to do when we’re only focused on another person.  However, this advice is easier said than done…after all, we all want to experience love and those amazing relationship moments.  We should just remember to enjoy them and think long and hard before the relationship impacts the serious decisions of our future.

Recently, I was presented with the opportunity to study abroad.  I was so excited and I spent two months planning every detail.  Then, I met my boyfriend and I began to doubt whether I should go or not.  I really love him, and the thought of being away from him for a semester really upset me.  When I told my mom I didn’t want to study abroad anymore, she was so surprised because traveling is what I’ve always loved.  She reminded me how much I wanted to study abroad before I met my boyfriend and that he would hate himself if he was the reason I didn’t go abroad.  After talking to him, he also told me I should do it. 

I was so close to not following the bit of advice I felt so strongly about.  Good thing we have our loved ones to help us see clearly when we get a bit lost.  Like my mom says, if people are meant to be, they’ll find their way back to each other.  I’ll return from my study abroad program, and who knows, maybe the time away will make my boyfriend and me even stronger.

Amanda is 19 years old and from Monterey, California. She loves to travel and learn different languages.  In her free time she does yoga, volunteers, and tries out new vegetarian food recipes. Her current favorite recipe is vegan brownie cupcakes! Got a question for Stacy? Email us!

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Funding for this project was provided by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Grant Number: 90-FE-0024. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.