TREAT IT WITH KINDNESS

Growing up in a household with a mother that was always walking around naked, I found comfort in being able to do so in front of my peers. It wasn’t until 4th grade, when one of my friends pointed out that I already had pubic hair (as I was an early bloomer.) From then on, I was extremely self conscious about having any hair down there. On top of struggling with some body issues, I thought I was some sort of freak. Having this “fat” vulva and shave bumps, from constantly trying to make sure I was “clean shaven” 100% of the time. It wasn’t until I reached the age of 15, where I was becoming sexually active, that it really did occur to me that I was no longer shaving for my own comfort, but for someone else’s. 
As the years progressed, I found solace in the arms of partners who praised my vulva. They found my larger outer lips to be “cute.” While I was so busy being worried I was deformed from having next to no inner labia and a much more prominent outer labia; I never had someone think I was anything less than normal. Best of all, a single partner once asked me to grow out my pubic hair. He told me “it would only make you that much more of the naturally beautiful woman, that you are.” Since then, I have never looked back, as those words, almost 4 years later have stuck with me. It’s amazing what one comment can impress on a young one’s mind. And what liberating yourself sexually, can do to your self confidence (when with those who respect your body.) I am now 24 years old, and I can honestly say that I have never loved my body more, just the way it is. I am so thankful for the people who reminded me how unique every vulva is, and how beautiful they all are, in their own way. These bodies we were gifted are for us, and those we choose to welcome anywhere near it. Treat it with kindness and remember what a powerful gift having a vulva is.

T. - 24 years old

I'M JUST DIFFERENT AND THAT'S OK

When I was younger approximately 11-12 years old, friends and I were curious about what each other’s vulvas looked like because we were learning sexual education in school at the time. We all giggled after class and asked to see each other’s, so we all showed them in a circle when nobody else was around. And I noticed that everyone else had some little fleshy bits visible from their outer labia and I didn’t. So for years I thought something was wrong with me or maybe I wasn’t developing as quickly as the other girls. I had already had my period and was suffering from pretty intense cramps so my family doctor referred me to a gynaecologist. During my first exam with her I was pretty shy and asked if I was “normal”. She said “yes everything looks fine” but I wasn’t happy with that answer so I reached down and asked “no but what this little piece of skin here?” and she said “that’s your inner labia”. And that’s when I realized I wasn’t missing anything. I’m just different and that’s okay. 

V. - 29 years old

BEAUTIFUL AND STRONG

Since I was very young I noticed I was different from the other girls and even from the adult women that surrounded me. My mom thought there was something wrong with me too, so she took me to the doctor who said my vulva was normal and it would change during my growth. My first sexual education was by seeing porn - I realised I was totally different from everything I saw. For years I suffered for being different - I even thought I was intersex - I thought I would never be loved, searched about labiaplasty and some natural way to decrease labia size. I was afraid of having sex, and I still don't like it very much, I can't enjoy the moment. However, luckily, nobody ever has said anything rude about the way I look.

In my journey to accept myself more, I found a lot of wonderful projects that helped me to see there's nothing abnormal about my vulva - projects like The Vulva Gallery - and it's truly helping me to accept myself more. Everyday I see a new artwork, a new history of women who go through the same as me. I realise that if I consider them to be beautiful and strong, then I can think the same about me. So it's an honour and it's making me very glad to be part of this ♡

A. - 19 years old

A LITTLE MARK - A MAJOR TIME

See that little scar? Just a little mark left behind on my body, but it signifies such a major time in my life. I have always struggled with pain in my uterus, usually because of my periods, but this past year it took a turn for the worse. The pain became so much that it hurt to sit or lay down and sometimes I couldn’t even move. Paralysed because of two cysts leaking in my left ovary. I had surgery recently to see if it could be anything worse, but thankfully everything came back negative. Slowly, I am starting to feel more like myself physically and emotionally ♥️ Thank you to The Vulva Gallery for helping me document this strengthening experience!

A. - 28 years old

ALOPECIA

I have alopecia, the autoimmune condition where your body rejects your own hair, and sometimes it progresses and spreads all over your body and if that were to happen to me (knock on wood) I wouldn't have pubic hair. So I've very rarely shave all of my pubic hair, mainly then just out of curiosity. I think I look better with hair on my mons pubis tbh. I know some of you'll think "oh that sounds amazing, not having to shave or wax" - but guess what else goes away; eyebrows and eyelashes and hair on your head... It's not something you'd want to wish for so I'm  hoping it won't happen (besides that, your pubic hair is there for a reason just like your facial hair). I used to be self conscious about my vulva like many others but due to accounts and artists like The Vulva Gallery I just feel proud to be able to join in the diversity, in fact having seen so many gorgeous ones I kinda feel mine is too normal, haha! The fact that I have a pesky external hemorrhoid is more of a bother these days, although I know those are very common as well and shouldn't be something to be disgusted or ashamed of either.

This gallery is absolutely amazing and beautiful and I hope everyone finds their way here to see how gorgeous they are 💕

K. - 31 years old

SO MUCH LOVE

Growing up I was very uneducated about the many different ways women can develop. I was very insecure and felt like mine was abnormal! However my first boyfriend helped me love myself, he loved everything about it, never said a bad word and made me realise I was normal! This page has also given me so much confidence! So much love. 

P. - 21 years old

WE ALL HAVE A PERFECTLY NORMAL AND LOVELY VULVA

When I was a child I never gave much though to my vulva. It was just another part of my body like my hands, my mouth or my eyes. It was down there and it was fine! As I grew older my vulva changed. Although my inner labia became longer I never thought I had an ugly vulva.
At the age of 15 I had my first sexual experience and after that I had a lot of sexual partners, both men and women. Interestingly, just one person told me she didn’t like my long inner labia: another woman. I always thought that women were more empathic that men, but apparently not at all. When I talk with my best friends (women too) about how vulvas should look they often have a strong opinion about appearance. This always makes me a bit sad.

I used to have a small clitoris, but once I took hormones for a sport competition it started growing. Since that moment I don’t like how my vulva looks. I feel very insecure about it. I’m afraid people will not like my clit and inner labia. Now I have a boyfriend and he loves it, but I always think about what will happen if I get single... I'll probably feel ashamed and worried about my vulva.

Before finding your beautiful project I was seriously considering labiaplasty and clitoral hood surgery, but you remind us we all have a perfectly normal and lovely vulva. Thank you!”

D. - 35 years old

MY DECORATED VULVA

I discovered your work recently and I really love what you do. I never really was concerned about my vulva, even when I discovered porn at a young age. But since I began dating guys and having a sexual life I understood there where vulvas considered "beautiful" and others "ugly" and I thought that was really unfair. I apparently have a "perfect pussy", [as my vulva shape is considered in the popular media / mainstream porn, red.] so I guess I should consider myself lucky. But I still think it's awful to rate vulvas by there appearances and I don't need a man's "seal of approval" on mine. I personally like my vulva, and decorated it 3 years ago because I wanted to. I also have a ring on my inner labia that is hidden most of the time since I have really really small inner labia. When I told my friends some of them told me that it's too bad to pierce "such a perfect pussy" and I find that very revealing of the pressure put on women in our society. But I like my pussy this way so I don't care what people think.

A. - 28 years old

FROM A NON-BINARY TRANSMASCULINE PERSPECTIVE

I am a non-binary person of transmasculine experience, I use gender neutral pronouns in my life and I have a vulva. I wanted to be part of this project to support representation for people who are not women but who are also learning to live in and love their bodies. I love pretty much all the things about my vulva except maybe sometimes that it is a vulva and not the other option. Over the years of living with my vulva and also being an artist that works with the image of vulvas, and as someone who also romantically loves people who have vulvas, I have come across some shocking beliefs people have about their own bodies and bodies of others. The truth is that there is rarely consistency, everyone’s body is different, even within nuclear families. And vulvas can change over time - I know mine has. The idea that specific vulvas belong to people of color, lesbians, or trans people, or people with different sexual experience is mind-boggling to me. That's why this project is so important, and why I want to be a part of it. I hope we will eventually see that no one is "typical," that we are all different and that this is beautiful.

T. - 36 years old

A SENSE OF RELIEF

Seeing this gallery gave me a sense of relief and I knew I had to participate. When I was a young teenager, I had never seen my own vulva. I’d only seen pictures from porn I found on the Internet in secret. They were all light colored, small, and hairless. Eventually I got up the courage to look at mine with a mirror. My heart sank and I thought I was deformed: browns, purples, fat labia majora and long labia minora (both different lengths) and lots of coarse hair the vulvas online didn’t have. I was ashamed and swore not to show anyone until I got my “deformity” fixed. I was sad for a long time until I found something else on the Internet one day. It was a forum thread with lesbians talking about how much they love vulvas and what they specifically love... ALL of my traits were mentioned. These lovely strangers made me swell with pride and had cured my “deformity”. I still had a bit of insecurity when I showed it to my boyfriend but he thinks it’s lovely. This gallery is great for showing young individuals what is normal and good, not just photoshopped, bleached, and altered bodies!

L. - 24 years old

AMAZING, MYSTERIOUS AND BEAUTIFUL

I love the female body and having a free attitude with nudity, admiring the beauty of the female body (every single body is beautiful and a unique piece of art) and especially of the vulva: the amazing, mysterious and beautiful part we all have and should be really proud of!

M. - 27 years old

MY FORM OF MEDITATION

For me, my whole life has just been trying to be comfortable in my skin. Body modification has been a big contributor to that. I have been pierced, tattooed, branded, you name it I’ve probably done it. Even though most people would think I’m crazy for this, I think it’s my form of meditation. It’s how I center myself and get to feel any sort of normal again. Nothing is off limits when it comes to making myself feel okay.

C. - 27 years old

NO MORE HIDING

I’m approaching my birthday again. I’ve made a lot of changes in my body lately. I lost 21 lbs in the past year, got a new hair color, and after hating myself since childhood, finally I am trying to love the body I have. It’s the only one I’m going to get!
I’m happy and proud to show most of my body to the world, but I feel my genital area is ugly and shameful: my thighs and butt are my largest fat deposits, the skin is very pale with freckles, it’s sensitive and often red, and I have one labia much longer than the other. My body insecurity keeps me from enjoying sex as well... I just don’t want to think about it or look at it! I remember wishing for many years that I was featureless like a Barbie doll down there. 
So as I approach year 31 of my life, I want to be more open about my body and my feelings, and maybe even be friends with my body. No more hiding. It feels so good to confess these secret feelings I’ve had for so long, and I’m sure many other women can relate as well. So I’m conquering my fear and showing everyone the beauty of my body through The Vulva Gallery! And we can all appreciate our bodies as the gifts they are no matter how we are told they “should” look. Who decides that anyway?

V. - 31 years old

NEW FOUND CONFIDENCE

For a long time I felt like my vulva had some sort of deformity. I wondered if my inner labia were meant to stick out like that. In pictures, they looked different which made me feel insecure. I wondered if men would think differently of me because of it. That was until I stumbled upon this gallery. It gave me a new found confidence, knowing that not everyone had a vulva without visible inner labia. It felt like I'd taken another step towards learning to love myself and I'm grateful for it.

J. - 20 years old

MY BODY HAIR IS MINE AND IT IS BEAUTIFUL

I started developing earlier than most girls, and when I was around 9 years old I got my first pubic hair. I didn’t understand what was happening to me so I told my mother and she made me pluck it out. She had me do this for a while until I got my period that same year. Ever since I was young I looked at my body hair as disgusting or abnormal. Guys I’ve been with have told me to shave it or they won’t do anything with me. I’ve been told I’m not clean if I have pubic hair and that no one will want to be with me. I started shaving at a very young age and felt immensely ashamed if anyone saw any hair on my body. I shaved my stomach because I felt that it wasn’t normal to have hair there. But just last year I shaved my head and let all other body hair grow out. I did a full transformation and my view on my body hair has changed dramatically. I don’t shave anything on my body. Every bit of hair is grown out and is what it naturally looks like. I am no longer ashamed to have pubic hair or to have hairy legs when I wear a dress or to wear a tank top when my armpits look like a jungle. My body hair is mine and it is beautiful. I have learned that love shouldn’t be based on the length of my hair or the lack thereof. Who ever decides to love me will love me with or without the natural hair on my body. And if they don’t like it they can leave. I am satisfied with my hair and encourage all women to be at peace with the vulvas that have been given to us. 

J. - 18 years old

MY VULVA, MY BODY, MY MIND, MY CHOICE

I have gone through many stages of accepting my vulva. In the beginning I thought my lips were misshaped and that pubes were gross. I was raised to believe that all of my body hair was gross and needed to be shaved. Its taken my many years to get over this, for a long time I plucked and shaved my pubes/belly button hairs constantly. This led to rashes and red bumps all over. I now let my pubes and most of my body hair grow long and full. 

The stage of accepting my vulva that was the most eye opening was realizing that having a vulva and vagina doesnt make me female, I can dress how I like and be who I feel. I am genderfluid, some days when I am masculine I have a hard time looking at myself without feeling shame. Finally i have gotten to a point where i would never ask for a different vulva because mine is unique and special to me, I have the right to do what I please with my body and nobody can touch my vulva, look at my vulva or choose anything for my vulva without my permission and thats how it should always be ! This includes letting all woman get IUDs, go on birth control, shave, let their hair grow, wax, use menstrual cups, tampons or pads, it is the individuals choice no matter what anybody else says.

My vulva, my body, my mind, my choice.

A. - 19 years old

CELEBRATE THE DIVERSITY

When I was a little child I thought that I was the only person who had a vulva like mine. I didn't know that the part in between the inner labia was the clitoris. In in the locker room of the swimming pool I had only seen vulvas without the inner labia visible. I remember that I prayed God to change my vulva. My cousin (a boy) told me, after seeing my vulva and my cousin's vulva, that mine was strange. Growing up and learning about the female anatomy, my vision has changed. Even if I hear negative comments from boys and girls about some vulvas that they saw (and also hearing concerns from girls about their vulva), it doesn't hit me so much any more. Now I have a boyfriend who totally changed my consideration about my body and I love it. I appreciate your work and in general the work of artists like you, that celebrate the diversity of the female anatomy.

R. - 20 years old

SELF LOVE IS IMPORTANT, YOU ARE IMPORTANT

I was having some real struggles with taking a photo of my vulva to submit to The Vulva Gallery. This is the first step on my way to self love. Self love is important, you are important. Spread the love to everyone. Be kind and mindful. Love yourself.

H. - 19 years old

I REALIZED ALL VULVAS ARE DIFFERENT

When I was a child I thought that all vulvas are the same. I did not see many, only the vulvas of my school friends, and these were just like mine. I thought there are only differences between penises, because I listened to jokes about sizes, etc. For a long time I thought that between penises there is a huge difference but that vulvas are all the same; the same size, same appearance... This idea stayed in my mind for a long time (which I now see as ignorant). Now I realize that vulvas can be very different from each other and they are all beautiful.

C. - 19 years old

THERE IS NOT ONE WAY OF HOW VULVAS SHOULD LOOK

My husband of 10+ years stopped touching me over the years. I’ve never put that much thought into how attractive or unattractive my vulva looks before that. I developed insecurities because of how “pretty” vulva looks on the internet. Could this be the reason why he doesn’t find me attractive enough? I am grateful for all the courageous women sharing what they look like because now I know there is not one way of how vulvas should look.  

S. - 46 years old