ABOUT
THIS IS A VULVA

In 2016, I went to Women of the World Festival and was given a colour by numbers vulva drawn by Jo Harrison.

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It went straight up on the fridge, prompting friends to ask 'what is THAT bit?' and 'I don't think I have that bit'. Which made me realise that we don't know all that much about vulvas, even when we have one.

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So This is a Vulva began. And what started as a way of putting more vulvas on the internet to raise awareness, turned into a much larger campaign to help educate people on the diversity of vulvas and ultimately make people accept their own, rather than deciding to go under the knife to get that 'designer vagina' that we see in free porn.

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I soon discovered some heartbreaking statistics.

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• Girls as young as 9 are asking for labiaplasty on the NHS

• In 2016, we were at a 21 year low for people attending their smear tests. When asked why they didn't go, some said they were worried they looked 'wrong' and were too embarrassed.

• 65% of young women are too embarrassed to use the words vagina and vulva

• Labiaplasty is the fastest growing cosmetic surgery in the world

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Labiaplasty is the process of cutting off sections of the labia to make it conform with the beauty ideal of a small, ‘neat’ and ‘tucked in’ vulva.

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In can sometimes be necessary for comfort reasons but is almost always done for aesthetic reasons. It costs thousands of pounds and comes with many risks, including loss of feeling in your clitoris.

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My goal is to stop people wanting it in the first place by making them realise there is absolutely nothing wrong with their vulva.

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Which is why I run my Instagram feed, full of information, myth busting and a huge, beautiful, diverse array of vulva images and I run Labia Lessons, a fun and relaxed monthly event to learn more about the vulva and diversity, with the added fun of making a vulva at the end. These events are for everyone and have helped many people feel more  knowledgeable and more at ease with their bodies.

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And I have received many happy messages from people across the world who now look at their vulva differently, and have even cancelled operations.

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