I’ve never hated my vulva. not even when I hit puberty and one of the labia minora grew so big it started to stick out a couple of centimeters. I've never had partners telling me that it was ugly, or made me feel uncomfortable about it. I’m lucky that way, I guess. However, it took me all my 21 years on this planet to look at it and find beauty. I've never really thought of vulvas as beautiful, maybe because we're not taught to (porn? partiarchy? sexism?), even after dating several vulva owners. One day I was talking about it with my gyno and she showed me an Instagram account, The Vulva Gallery. It’s very easy to look at a painting, whatever the subject of that may be, and think of it as art, or beauty - but it’s a lot harder to think of the subject as art. But the truth is, our body, whatever color, shape or form, is art. Having my vulva painted felt empowering, and liberating. It shows I am art, I am beautiful, my vulva is beautiful.

F. - 21 years old