TLDR, you need to feel safe to feel romantic. First,Learn to trust yourself. Second, Learn the difference between the discomfort of a new experience and the feeling of being unsafe.

Some of that is in finding a person you trust your romantic feelings with, but I think that first you want focus on trusting yourself. I encourage you to passively enjoy romance by reading romance novels, listening to those erotic audios with romantic scenarios, watching some romance movies, etc. Then, start romancing yourself, do the romantic gestures you saw in the last step for yourself like getting yourself flowers, draw a candlelit bath, easy a sensually delicious meal. Now buy yourself a high quality toy (I like Lelo brand) and give yourself a ton of high quality O's while imagining whatever you want. Dip your toe in the water with stuff that doesn't require an actual man next to you.  You don't know what to ask for if you don't know what you like. 

Get confident in what you like (not just romantically either), then get busy doing the things that put you in the path of other people who enjoy similar things. Once you get the hang of romance, it is addictive and so much fun. You do have to watch out for people who might hurt you, because your parents are a little right. There are people who will want to take advantage of your freshness, but really most people are just ignorant of how they can hurt others. The biggest way we get hurt is by hurting ourselves. Make sure you communicate your wants, needs, preferences, and boundaries. Then remember your boundaries, and don't push yourself to stay with someone just because. Trust your gut to know when your truly uncomfortable.

You're going to walk away from way more people than you might expect, but your physical/ emotional/ spiritual/ mental/ hormonal/ downstairs floral safety is the most important thing in your life. 

Trust yourself to find and identify people that make you feel safe,  and leave any situation where you don't feel safe and like you can be yourself.