I guess it started early high school, when a health teacher misinformed the class on how labia should look. He made it seem like there was only one type. I didn't realize I had never paid attention to mine, but later, I realized mine didn't match and it made me self conscious. Later on I became scared - not only because I thought my own parts were ugly and deformed, but I also feared that someone, somewhere, would use it to hurt me. Already being an anxious teenager, that stuck with me. I pretended my own vulva wasn't there; if it wasn't there I had nothing for my anxiety to latch on to. And if it wasn't there, it couldn't be used to hurt me. It wasn't okay to look at, nor touch, and it made me very naive to my own body. I think that caused more anxiety. Anxious of what I didn't know. Now, at 22, I'm slowly walking away from that fear and anxiety thanks to my girlfriend and good friends and places like this gallery show that me I'm fine the way I am and that I can't live in fearing a part of myself that will never not be a part of me.

B. - 23 years old