Int'l Doula Month - Giveaway #6

Jessica, over at Vulva Love Lovely, has provided our next donation to International Doula Month Giveaway. Interviewing her made me laugh out loud, and cry with understanding! Her story is powerful, and I am happy to support her store through our giveaway as her passion and reason behind her art work speaks to multitudes of women!

She has provided a lip balm for the giveaway, which is, as you guessed, for your 'lips'! :)
Jessica, thank you for your honest and witty answers, and thank you for bringing your body positive products to the world of women!

Tell us a little about yourself:

I have an addiction to chocolate soy milk.

How did you get into this line of work:

When I was in high school I was more than an outcast, I was an untouchable. I was never good enough for anyone. Those closest to me flip flopped between my being too fat, too thin, always worried about what I looked like, worried why I didn’t look like the other girls…. From what I could tell, sex made you popular. It seemed that being accepted was more important than anything else. I sought out sex and found it in all of the wrong places. I was taken advantage of by older men and was used by the boys in school, it was horrible. In keeping the company I did, I found myself in abusive relationships and humiliating, dehumanizing sexual encounters. I went to a Catholic school where we were taught abstinence only sex ed, so I had no idea how truly easy it was to get STD’s, to become pregnant, and all of the other extra’s that go along with irresponsible sex. All of it hurt and many of the scars from those consequences will follow me for the rest of my life. All of that and in the end it didn’t matter. I was still an outcast.

For a long time I didn't think about my Vagina, to avoid feeling all of the things that you feel after all of that. Whenever I thought of my Vagina in any context, I got this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I felt dirty, I felt useless, I felt ashamed and I felt used, thrown away, I felt like a piece of garbage. Death, sadness and humiliation all lingered there.

Last year a friend of mine asked me to see the Vagina Monologues. I thought it was going to be funny, like a big Vagina joke, so I agreed. Then I saw all of these women who were proud enough of their Vaginas to get up in front of a room of people and say it. I was horribly jealous. I wanted what they had. Soon, I realized what they had was a Vagina. I have one of those too. There was nothing wrong with my Vagina and it didn’t need anyone's approval! I started making these things to help get out my frustration, then to celebrate my Vagina, now to take it back. Its mine now.

I hope that my work will inspire all of you to look at women differently, and to heal your own soul, because I know that we are all wounded in one way or another.

What makes your heart skip a beat, hold your breath, or sigh with happiness:

In all honesty, my dog. He makes me the happiest person in the world. That and The Beatles.

If you had to choose one item that you sell, what is your favorite and why:

Any of my Vulva Pendants. The first thing I made to help myself heal was my portrait pendant, and it changed my life. Im very emotionally linked to each and every pendant I make.

When you think of a doula, what do you think:

I think of a sister.

Consequentially, what do you think of birth practices in the U.S. right now:

I cant really say for sure as I have not yet given birth or really given any serious thought into doing it in the near future. I will only just be getting married this December. I can say this: I know enough that I want a home birth. My fiance is in med school, so I will have a doctor there. So, I suppose I think that a natural birth is very important, and equally important is having a doc there if anything goes wrong. Working for a Doula I can say that both doulas and doctors need to show more respect for one another. They need to work with each other, not against each other. I can dream.

Anything Else that you would like us to know about you:

All you birthin Diva's rock my Uterus, so from my Uterus to yours: may your births be peaceful.

I love, love facebook fans! I spend all of my time blabbering there, so stop by!

RULES FOR ENTERING:

Remember, EACH OF THESE count as one entry. You have to complete the first entry to be able to be able to have the other entries counted. To have them counted as one entry each, they must each be fulfilled with their own, separate, comment. Be sure that your comment contains your email either in the body of the message, or through your profile.

• For your initial entry, you must visit her etsy store, then come back and let me know which is your favorite item and why in a comment.
  
• For an additional entry, post a link to this giveaway on your FB OR create your own blog post regarding this giveaway, with a link to this post, then comment with a link back to your blog post/FB post.. Then, copy and paste a link to that in a comment here on my blog.
  
• For an additional entry, "friend" her on FB, then let me know in a comment here on my blog.
  
• If you took advantage of the Early Bird Entries, you can add any/all of your Early Bird entries to this giveaway by commenting with the words "EB Entry".
  

Entries will be closed on May 29th, at midnight, and the drawing will occur on May 31st, at noon.

Happy entering!!!