The young stars of MTV's new series Virgin Territory have spoken about their decision to take part in the show. The docu-series follows a group of young adults as they navigate the tricky decision of when to lose their virginity.

Messy love lives, awkward parental sex talks, sexually active friends, and the pressure to give in to their temptations all make for a very tumultuous journey for these abstinent adolescents.

"Sex is something that you should share with your husband," said Dominique Sullivan, who's determined to wait for the right man. "It was meant for marriage. Like it's a connection and it's spiritual and it's a bond that you can never take back. I mean once your virginity is gone, it's gone out the window.

"And I always heard it's kind of like Pringles - once you pop the fun don't stop! So I want to make sure my fun don't stop with my husband, not with someone else."

For Alec Melger, though, it's a different story. "Some of my cast members are waiting till marriage and that's awesome," he said. "But abstinence isn't for me. I'm ready to bang.

"You'll see that journey - I was in the closet when the show started and then I came out. So it was a journey about accepting myself."

But while it's a journey that everybody goes through, not every teen would choose to go through such an important time in their lives on television.

"Well I decided to be on the show because I was a girl who decided to wait until marriage to have sex," explains Lisa Youngerman. "I did it because of my faith and my Christianity and I specifically chose because that time was quickly running out and I actually got married.

"There are many people in the United States, many Christians, who make this decision but it's not represented. So I wanted to show that this is a decision that we are still making and it's possible and here's the end result of that, that you can see."

"It's not right or wrong it's just what we believe in and what we want to do so we wanted to set that example," added Dominique.

"And virgins always get overlooked. I feel like we always get overlooked and we're misrepresented. Like people always think we have to look a certain way, dress a certain way.

"But I really feel like this show represents virgins of all cultures, of all race and you can't define us. You really can't. You can't define us because we are all individuals and I think that's a great thing."

[related]And while not all of them are ready to 'do it' yet, talking about sex can only be a good thing as far as these teens are concerned.

"In our culture sex is everywhere, but it's a very narrow representation of it," said Alec. "So it's like here we are, young adults, in this whole culture where you know sex sells and we're just like we are not having it so let's discuss it. And I think it's going to be a very different thing that people aren't expecting from our show."

Virgin Territory starts Monday 4th August, only on MTV.