Please welcome Stephanie to the blog. Stephanie writes over at Meet Mrs Mayweather, where she educates and empowers women. Let’s hear it from Stephanie.
What made you decide to start a sex blog?
When I applied to grad school my goal was to leave with a Masters in Public Health and a job doing sexual health research and/or sex education work. I was fortunate to hone in on my presentation and facilitation skills as a part of a student org called Sexperteam where I enjoyed doing workshops on sex, consent, healthy communication, and relationships. During that time I learned that there were so many women who were having sex often, but failing to prioritize their pleasure. I wanted to focus on teaching women to discover what they want in sex and then boldly ask for it from their partner.
Unfortunately, research jobs were hard to land and sex ed jobs were scarce in my area when I graduated. Fast forward, after 4 years in substance abuse prevention I decided if I couldn’t find the job I wanted, I would create it. My blog, meetmrsmayweather.com/blog is a launching pad for me to deliver workshops, webinars, and books on sex, dating, and relationships in the near future.
What, if anything, would you like your blog to achieve?
I would love for my blog to empower women to articulate their needs and wants in sex, dating, and relationships AND get the intimacy that they ask for and deserve. My hope is that I create a space where women can feel comfortable to share their stories and learn from each other. Every time someone sends me a message and thanks me for sharing my stories I feel encouraged to continue this work.
How much do you protect your anonymity as a sex blogger or are you quite open about writing a sex blog? And if the latter, what kind of reactions have you received?
My family and friends know that I am a proud sex blogger. They are super supportive and share my content a lot. The only people who aren’t aware of the blog are coworkers and my boss at my full time job. I work with youth a lot and my content is clearly for adults, so I try to keep them separate in that regard.
If readers would read only one post from your blog, which one would you recommend (i.e. which is your favourite/most important blog post)?
That’s tough because I love them all, but I really enjoyed writing my blog on “Should you have sex on the first date?”. I’m totally not against the idea, I just think it’s important for women to really consider how that decision can not only affect their vagina, but also their lives (personal safety) and heart. It definitely gives a lot of questions to think about.
Do you have any advice for other sex bloggers?
First, I would say be honest and authentic. The readers who truly love you will stick with you even when you talk about your mental health, kids, or other life changes. At the end of the day sex is affected by all of that and it makes you more relatable. Another tip would be to survey your audience. Before I launched I put out a survey among my friends and Facebook followers to see what their biggest challenges were in sex, dating, and relationships, as well as what forms of social media they used most and how they liked to receive content. It helped me gauge what people wanted to read about and also figure out how I could monetize my blog in the long run.
And finally, why have you decided to join Summer 100 Sex Bloggers Challenge and are you really going to write 100 posts?
I often feel like the odd man out in these blog groups when everyone else is writing about teaching other people how to start a blog, being the best mom you can be, or how to decorate your house. Basically everything but sex and relationships. So it’s so amazing to be among this group of women who are talking about sex in a healthy way and sharing their stories and P.O.V. At this point, there is no way I’m going to get to 100, but I am going to try to write as many as I can. Shout out to Victoria for such a cool idea!