I grew up in a very nudity and sex positive household, where we talk about everything. I always knew a lot about sex and bodies, because my brother and I were allowed to ask whatever regarding the topic.
Although I had such a body positive upbringing, loving my vulva was very hard for me. There are/were three factors that made me uncomfortable:
Factor one: I have one very long labia and because I didn’t know better, I thought it was abnormal. When I showed it to my mum and told her, that I felt like my vulva was ugly, she didn’t really make me feel better at first, because she hadn’t seen such a long labia before, either. We went to the doctor and she told me, that I could get surgery, if I felt that insecure about it. I never did, because I was too scared, and I am so glad I didn’t! After I started having sex, I didn’t grow more confident in the beginning, because people mistook my labia for my clitoris, but I somehow, as I grew older and had other sex partners, cared a bit less about it and found more pleasure in sex and my vulva.
The second factor that always bothered me though, was the hair and the smell/taste. I’m doing permanent hair removal at the moment (aka laser treatment), because not being hairy makes me feel cleaner and I feel more comfortable when I’m naked. I feel like, everyone just needs to find out what suits them best, if they want to have hair, shave it partly, or remove it completely– just experiment, until you feel happy.
The third and last factor that I am currently struggling with, is a little scar I have, because I had a small heart surgery and they put tubes from my inner thigh up into my heart. The scar is, as you can see, indeed small and it might not stay forever, but it is still something that bothers me a little. It’s part of who I am and part of my story, but I don’t look at it that way all the time. I see it as a „flaw“, but I’m getting better at accepting it. It’s weird that the scar bothers me so much, because (as you can see) I have a birth mark too, but I never felt insecure about it, ever. I always loved it.
I love being part of this amazing project, because it has surely been helping me a lot on my acceptance journey and I hope my story can be of some help or at least part of the bigger picture, showing the wonderful diversity of the human (and female) body.
K. - 21 years old