For years and years I thought there was something wrong with my body. My vulva looked nothing like the vulvas I'd seen in porn and their two perfectly defined "lips." Instead I was blessed with long, dark-coloured inner labia and a lack of education, all of which led me to believe I had a deformation. I refused to ask my doctor the questions that burned at the back of my mind, in part because I was self-conscious and in part because I was scared of what they'd say. Years later I discovered an art project, not unlike The Vulva Gallery, that made molds of many different types of vulvas. It opened my eyes to a world of diversity, and gave me the information I desperately needed to know. I wish I could go back in time and tell my teenage self that everything would be okay. I know now that you don't have to have a specific type of vulva to be beautiful.
R. - 20 years old