A crowd of giggling, energetic women squeeze into a tiny college campus apartment. They sit or stand wherever they can fit and focus on a small card table in the center of the room covered with colorful objects.

The items on the table aren't makeup or jewelry. They're not Tupperware or purses either — they are sex toys.

The grandmothers and mothers of today's college students used to host Tupperware and Mary Kay parties, but times have changed. Sex toy parties are becoming more popular with college women. With the purpose of spicing up a weekend in Champaign, Fran Murphy, junior in LAS, and her roommates recently hosted a sex toy party at their apartment.

"We wanted to have a sex toy party because it was something different and fun," said Patty Kernan, junior in business. "It is a great way for girls to get together and be silly and laugh a lot. It is a perfect example of something to do without boys around."

Murphy said the party was very successful because once word got out that they were having it people kept inviting themselves. About 45 people attended, but Murphy said organizing the party was difficult.

"No one in the Champaign area gives sex toy parties, only people from the Chicagoland area," Murphy said. "It was hard to find someone willing to come all the way here."

Murphy eventually found a mother-daughter team to travel the distance. Laura Simmons, an 18-year-old from Calumet City, and her mom Jean, are sales representatives for For Your Pleasure, a company that provides online and mail products to the adult community. Laura said people often comment on the oddity of a mother and daughter team selling sex toys, but she said she doesn't see it as an issue.

"I have always talked to my mom about everything," she said. "My mom had just gotten divorced and we both needed extra money so when I pitched the idea to her, she was all about it."

Parties normally consist of a group of 10 to 20 women, but co-ed parties also exist. Laura said she has seen many different age groups represented at parties. Each party begins with a warm-up game to get the women laughing and open-minded. Bedroom bingo, where women shout out phrases that are only used in the bedroom, launched this particular get-together. Then, the presenters got down to business by introducing the merchandise. Catalogs were distributed to the women so they could begin preparing their order form during the presentation.

"I thought the party was much better than just going through a catalog," said Natalie Padgurskis, junior in LAS. "Here, I was more excited about the products because we got to smell, taste and feel them."

Each product traveled from woman to woman, some products faster than others, and usually each woman displayed a different reaction with each toy. Laura Brayton, senior in LAS, said she also hosted a sex toy party.

"It was mainly for entertainment purposes; even if you didn't buy anything you got a kick out of different people's responses to the products," Brayton said. "There was definitely a diversity of reactions. You had girls that would gasp at some things and other girls who would be like, 'Oh yeah I can use that this weekend.'"

Hosting and attending a sex toy party is completely free and purchase of the merchandise is not mandatory. But ordering merchandise is done in private.

Kerri Todd, junior in business and Murphy's roommate, said privacy was not necessary at her party. She said the atmosphere was very comfortable and women talked openly about their relationships and often asked each other questions.

"This is such a taboo subject because people don't usually discuss sex, but in this environment with a bunch of friends it is much more acceptable," Kernan said.

The advantage of presenting a party is the 40 percent commission they receive off the total dollars spent by the attendees of the party. Hosting a party also has its benefits; the host gets 10 percent of the profits made by the sales representatives.

"I have found few disadvantages to this job — I do my presentation, and then have fun with the people at the party," Simmons said. "I get to drink, have a good time and get paid."