Jenna Bush Hager admits she lets daughter Mila, 10, read 'young adult' book series and reveals they've already had 'sex talks' as she insists: 'I know what's appropriate for her'

Jenna Bush Hager has revealed that she’s already had conversations about sex with her 10-year-old daughter, Mila, and lets her read ‘young adult’ novels because she would ‘so much rather’ her children ‘learn about sex or drinking through books’ instead of via the internet.

The 42-year-old TV star is an avid reader and on Thursday’s episode of Today With Hoda & Jenna, she and her cohost, Hoda Kotb, were discussing Rebel Wilson’s explosive new memoir and one particular chapter where she revealed that she lost her virginity at 35.

As the two hosts praised Rebel for being so honest, Jenna said of navigating sex for the first time: ‘It’s so interesting, I feel like conversations about sex have changed so much since we were little. Mila’s in fifth grade and one of the things that people have been surprised about is I let her read this book series called The Summer I Turned Pretty by my queen, Jenny Han, who is an incredible writer for young adults.

‘She’s obviously not a young adult, she’s a kid, but I think people are like, “ugh you didn’t censor, you let her….” First of all, I think everybody should just do them, but second of all – this is what I believe – I believe I would so much rather my kids learn about sex or drinking or whatever it is through books than through YouTube.’

Jenna Bush Hager has revealed that she’s already had conversations about sex with her 10-year-old daughter, Mila

Jenna said that some people are ‘surprised’ that she let her oldest child read a young adult book series

The 42-year-old made the comments during Thursday’s episode of Today With Hoda & Jenna

‘I would so much rather my kids read something and get to come to their mom’s bedside and say, “Hey mom, I didn’t quite get this,” and me be able to help lead the conversation than her having influencers do that for her.’

Hoda, 59, who is mom to two young daughters, agreed with Jenna: ‘Good girl, preach! I like this, this is good.’

Jenna continued: ‘That’s what I believe and I’m a daughter of a librarian so that’s what we’re having,’ referring to her mother, former First Lady Laura Bush.

‘Judy Blume was my guidance. I know Mila, I know what’s appropriate for her and it’s not appropriate for everybody and I get it. I’m not dictating everybody should read everything, that’s not the way it is. And I’m not letting her read everything.

‘One of the things that I have had the opportunity to talk to her about via this book… is about sex. It’s so very different than when we were little and the thing I say to her is, “You are the chooser. If something doesn’t feel right to you, don’t do it.”‘

Hoda replied: ‘Right. And do you know how many kids probably – who are now adults – wish their mothers had had that conversation with them then? Because often girls are pleasers, they do things that don’t feel right because they don’t want to upset someone or they don’t want to rock the boat, or they think everybody’s doing it.’

‘Or, the other end of the spectrum… there is shame around it,’ Jenna added as the duo went on to praise Rebel again.

‘Because she’s right, not everything is perfect for everybody and for her to stand in her own truth and say, “Hey I wasn’t ready until this age”, and it not to be….’

Hoda Kotb (left) agreed with Jenna’s parenting comments and told her: ‘This is good’

Jenna explained that she would rather ‘help lead the conversation’ about sex than ‘have influencers do that for her’

Jenna and her husband, Henry, are parents to Mila, 10, Poppy, eight, and four-year-old son Hal

Hoda added: ‘That conversation comes up a lot when you are younger. I can imagine that it must have been kind of weird and isolating… because there is a point for all of us where you wonder, “Is it me? Do I not have anything to offer?” But wow, good for her.’

In her new memoir, Rebel Rising, the actress explained that she divulged the detail about her sex life in the hopes that it would help young people because ‘not everybody has to lose their virginity as a teenager.’

‘People can wait till they’re ready or wait till they’re a bit more mature,’ the Pitch Perfect star, 44, told People.

‘You obviously don’t have to wait until you’re in your 30s like me, but you shouldn’t feel pressure as a young person,’ Rebel – who said Sacha Baron Cohen asked her to strip – added.

In the past, she even lied about having had sex just to not have to talk about it.

‘There was one vague time, I think I told my best friend, “Oh, yeah, I just did it to just get it over with when I was like 23,”‘ Wilson revealed.

‘Just to really avoid the questions,’ she explained. ‘Normally I would just leave the room when the conversation was happening.

‘And then the people that said, “Oh, at 24, it’s so late.” And then I’m sitting here thinking, “Oh my God, my number’s 35. What the hell? I’m going to look like the biggest loser,”‘ she admitted.

Hoda and Jenna praised Hollywood actress Rebel Wilson for her ‘honest’ new memoir

In the upcoming book, Rebel reveals she didn’t lose her virginity until she was 35 years old

Rebel thinks the era she was born in had a lot to do with her being, in her own words, ‘a late bloomer.’

She explained that she thinks if she was born 20 years later, she would have felt more open to exploring her sexuality at a younger age.

‘It’s absolutely incredible, if I had been born 20 years later, I probably would’ve explored my sexuality more. I just knew I was attracted to men, and that was the normal thing,” the Senior Year actress said.

‘And so when I started opening myself up probably more after my father’s death and realizing, oh, even though I’d seen marriage as a terrible thing and waste of time, I started opening myself up to that.

‘And then only years later, meeting women and having feelings for a woman, and that, I just think it’s a sign of where society kind of was.’

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