A revolution.

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This place is not for the easily offended.

I’ve been shadow banned on Instagram.

I’ve been censored on social media.

I’ve had my account restricted by Google.

They keep trying to shut me up but all that’s making me want to do is shout even LOUDER!

This is the story of my business and the birth of Periods & Pleasure - my new platform where I will not shut up about all of the things that we still (collectively) just don’t speak about.

I founded UNFURL with Laura back in November 2023 after a motorbike accident placed the cherry on top of my career cake and I realised that I just didn’t want to keep doing the same shit anymore.

I’ve even done a TEDx talk about it - something else I just won’t shut up about - it being how my entire identity was built around my career… until it wasn’t.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to have my own business.

I’m the queen of ideas! But there has always been big dreams and no action.

So when I started my business this time, I still didn’t actually know what I was hoping to do with it… I just knew that I wanted to do something.

In my previous jobs, I was always described as the ‘wellbeing ambassador’ - an unofficial title that I gained through my apparently uncommon dedication to actually supporting my staff. I’ve always managed my teams the way that I would have wanted to be managed - with respect, kindness and care. So when I started my own business I thought what better way to give back than to offer some sort of wellbeing service…

I’d already been hosting free women’s circles on Aberdeen Beach so I decided to create a more tailored offering including a sauna experience with one off pop ups around Scotland. I wanted to offer empowerment coaching too but I quickly realised how unregulated the coaching industry is and how unqualified I potentially was to be charging people for my advice. I flitted with the idea of forest bathing too having previously qualified as a Forest School leader combined with my own personal passion for being immersed in nature to slow down and switch off. I tried a little bit of everything.

To put it bluntly, I had no fucking clue what I was doing and I sometimes think that I still don’t… is everyone that is self employed just secretly winging it?

I can’t be the only one.

So where does all this chat about periods and pleasure come into it?

I can’t actually remember how I found out about the work of Lydia Reeves but I just know that, when I did, I fell in love with everything she does and everything she stands for. I knew that it was unlikely I’d be getting down to Brighton anytime soon to get a cast done by her so I ordered the DIY vulva casting kit online and (in what is definitely a whole other blog post) me and my best friend Jenny had what can only be described as a very bonding moment in our friendship lying semi-naked on my kitchen floor…

I’d messaged Lydia a few times asking how I could get into this kind of work - desperate to bring casting to Scotland and to give other people this incredible experience - while shining a big, bright light on body diversity. If she had replied when I first asked, I probably wouldn’t have been able to say yes to the opportunity she presented me with but, in divine timing, Lydia had decided she wanted to expand her business just as I was starting out on my self-employed journey and, in January 2024, I headed down to Brighton to get stuck in with my casting training and the Scotland studio was born.

This might seem like a long winded way to start telling this story (and this really is the short version) but it will all make sense as the events start to unfurl…

See, what I realised when I started meeting the INCREDIBLE people who were coming to get cast was how little so many of them knew (or had been taught) about their own bodies. I realised that it was actually the conversations that we were having during the casting appointments that lit me up more so than the process of casting itself. I realised that the conversations were ones that were so infrequently had anywhere else because of the stigma and shame around the topics we were discussing.

I realised that periods and pleasure were things that still just weren’t being spoken about and I very quickly realised that was something I wanted to change.

It was my boob casting assistant (and wonderful friend) Ellen who suggested that I start a blog so you have her to thank for the weird, wild and wonderful musings that will be coming your way. There are a myriad of other blog posts which I originally shared on my UNFURL with Laura website and which I will, in time, think about transitioning over to here. Then something else I realised is that what I love, even more than speaking about these things, is writing about them.

I grew up learning absolutely nothing about my own body.

When I first found blood in my knickers, I thought I was dying.

I can’t even tell you how many inanimate objects I have inserted into my vagina in the process of trying to understand pleasure.

I had no boundaries with boys and I let school bullies shame me into denying my sexuality.

I’ve spoken to SO many people and I hear the same stories again and again… and again!

I still hear people calling their vulva a vagina or thinking that their menstrual cycle is their period or not even knowing the words follicular or luteal never mind how they relate to their body.

The lack of education and awareness is downright appalling.

But it’s also not just women, or people who menstruate, who need to be taught. It’s the people who support those people too. It’s everyone.

Men have often told me that my work isn’t for them - but what about their partners, their sisters, their mothers or their daughters? What about their friends?

This is a conversation that needs to be happening - without embarrassment, without judgement, without stigma and without shame.

I’ve been on my own journey with my menstrual cycle over the last four years and I have already completed the Menstruality Leadership Programme with Red School which has led to my continued studies on their two year apprenticeship programme.

I’ve also completed an accredited RSE course with ACET UK to become a qualified Sex Educator - which mostly reminded me that sex education in schools is still unsatisfactory, over-regulated and under delivered. It made me realise that it’s the adults who still need to be taught because why would the parents and the education regulators prioritise this type of education if they don’t see the value in it for themselves?!

I have never pretended, and will never pretend, to be an expert in the things that I write (or speak) about. I believe, passionately, in the strength of community and connection. I believe in supporting each other. I believe that we will never stop learning - which is great for me because I love to learn - but I also believe that it is absolutely okay to sometimes change our mind about things once we have more information, or a different point of view.

I’m here because I want to eradicate the shame and stigma around periods and pleasure. I want to give people more information and offer that (maybe) different point of view to change the current narrative and open up the conversation.

I know that this journey isn’t going to be easy. It isn’t going to be easy because I can’t do things the way that they have always been done. I need to carve my own path.

I’ve already been met with so much resistance. When my Google account got restricted, I almost decided to throw my business in the bin - in much the same way that I did with my career. That, to me, would have been the easy option.

I chose the challenge. I chose to take the opportunity at not being able to access my emails, my drive or my website to completely overhaul my business and re-brand it in a way that aligns more with the work that I am doing now. The work that I want to continue to grow and develop and expand and the work that I am now much more certain about than I was all those months ago when I first started my business.

So, here we are… Periods & Pleasure has entered the multiverse.

It’s a pleasure to have you here. Period.