I started removing my pubic hair when I was 12. I removed it after I overheard the older students at the school swimming carnival laughing about how disgusting and dirty my pubic hair looked poking out of the sides of my bikini bottoms. I went home that afternoon, grabbed the first razor I saw and shaved away the thick hairs that covered my vulva as a waterfall of tears escaped my eyes. From then on, I struggled to accept my pubic hair as I was told by ex-partners, family members and the beauty industry that it was dirty, unattractive and shameful. I wouldn’t wear a bikini without being shaven as I thought I had to alter my body to go to the beach. The way the media and the beauty industry referred to pubic hair made me feel as if it was a flaw and something that needed covering and hiding, so therefore I removed mine even when I didn’t want to. But as I got older, I started to realise that beauty standards were trash and pubic hair wasn’t a flaw. It was natural, human, normal and real. Not dirty or unattractive as I had been conditioned to believe. I don’t want you thinking that you need to be hairless to wear a bikini because you don’t. It’s your choice to shave, wax or grow your pubic hair. Sometimes I like to remove mine, and sometimes I choose to keep it. Your body is your body, and only you get to decide what you do with it. Do whatever makes you feel most comfortable but remember you don’t have to remove your body hair before you go to the beach if you don’t want to. Your body is already a beach body. You don’t have to change a thing. @loungeunderwear