Ellie Eggwick, from Queensland's Sunshine Coast, said she felt so bad about her vagina that she had to inquire about labiaplasty. But after she met a doctor who advised her to do some research, she discovered she was perfectly normal.
After the discovery, she was inspired to photograph more than 500 vaginas for a coffee table book to prove that all vaginas are beautiful
'Something that is said in the bedroom with someone you are being affectionate with can affect you for the rest of your life,' she told Sunshine Coast Daily.
'It has definitely stuck with me and is the reason why I am doing this project.'
Ms. Eggwick said her own insecurities began when she was a teenager.
'As I had never seen another vulva, I had no idea,' she wrote on her website.
All the thoughts and nightmares of a usual teenage girl went running wild through my brain - is my vagina weird?' Am I normal?'
According to Eggwick, her insecurities prompted her to consider undergoing a labiaplasty, a form of surgery that reduces the outer folds of the female labia.
'After years of self-hate with this area of my body, I eventually went to see a plastic surgeon. I was so nervous, I couldn't even explain what I wanted.
He looks up at me and asked "Ellie, have you ever seen another Vulva?" I told him "I've seen a few but they don't look like mine," she explained.
The doctor told Ms. Eggwick that all vaginas are different and inspired her to share this message with other women.
'What this man did at this moment saved me from cutting off half of my labia. He educated me. He used nice words to tell me that not all girls have the barbie vagina.
'I now want to do the same for all the women out there contemplating going through surgery due to a lack on knowledge of that area on their own body,' she said.
The photographer hopes her campaign will encourage girls to accept their bodies.
'I don't want young girls going through what I went through thinking I wasn't normal downstairs,' Ms Eggwick explained.
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