“I didn’t realise how much my sexuality became a projection of what I thought guys wanted from me until very recently. I have masturbated since I was about 9, but I didn’t tell any guy about this till I was 14 and realised they thought it was hot, I was actually way more frightened bringing it up with friends and didn’t tell my best friend till we were 16 and drunk in a field, because I had it in my head that masturbation was some dirty thing only slutty girls did to turn guys on despite the fact I really enjoyed it. I just thought t h a t m a d e m e m o r e o f a s l u t .”
“When I was 15 a guy I was talking to online told me that if I didn’t send him a video of me masturbating that he would kill himself”
“One year my best friend’s boyfriend asked for a dirty picture of me, not having had much attention from boys before I stupidly sent one, naturally everyone found out, everyone hated me and called me a slut but no one said a bad word about him. I remember every time I sat next to a guy in class they would tell me how they’d seen it and it made me feel incredibly uncomfortable”
“I lost my vi with when I first time we were togethe me that if I the best org I had been g but I wish I advised him my ability to gave me an o
irginity to the first boy I fell in love was 15. Before we had sex for the e engaged in oral sex most days we er. After one or two times he told shaved my vagina he would give me asm I'd ever had. I didn't know that giving myself orgasms since I was 9 had known that because I could have that my pubic hair wasn't affecting o orgasm. I shaved it off. He never o r g a s m .�
“I had my first “boyfriend” in year 9 and as soon as we started going out I suddenly became really frightened of him, because I didn’t understand consent and I just thought that it gave him the right to do whatever he wanted to me and that I owed him something. So I avoided him and was mean to him whenever I saw him until we broke up because I was too scared to say I w a s n ’ t r e a d y .”
“I used to go ro friend's house a when I wasn't th asked him if we He lied and said realised, I just are really nice t few weeks later rumour went rou someone. Not tr mum heard and started shriekin a dirty slut in f room. I had no i come from and n m e .�
und to a male a lot, and one day here his parents were a couple. d yes. I never thought his family to me. Anyway, a at a house party a und that I shagged rue again, but his went nuts and ng at me that I was ront of the whole idea where this had nobody stuck up for
“When I was twelve I went shopping with my friend and her grandma, I remember a guy in his twenties grabbed my bum as he went past, he then looked back as he went up the escalator and winked at me. I remember feeling extremely frightened and intimidated, I didn’t tell anyone I was with about it, but for the rest of the day I was terrified I’d see him and t h a t h e ’ d t r y t o u c h m e a g a i n .”
“I th g h st ru u th p u a o d a th
In year 8 I remember a guy decided hat he thought it would be funny to rab me inappropriately every time e saw me, he groped my vagina, tuck his hand down my bra, would un up to me and kiss me. I felt so ncomfortable every day at school and hen his friends started joining in, ulling me onto their knees, running p behind me and bending me over nd making it into a contest. This went n for weeks until I started crying one ay and admitted that it made me feel wful to my best friend who had from h e b e g i n n i n g s a i d i t w a s n ’ t o k a y.�
photography Naomi Blakeborough models design Florence Packer
all information and photographs are from women 18+