Charlotte Alice Featherston
Lee
Graduate
London College of Fashion
BA (Hons) Fashion Journalism and Content Creation
((PROFILE FOR SISTER MAGAZINE))
((HEADER)) “The Weird Girl That Talked About Sex”
((BODY COPY))
“What is your overall mission with UNGirl?” I speak to Catriona Lygate over Whatsapp voice note from Coswig, Germany. Catriona Lygate is the Scottish born activist behind UNGirl whose mission is “for every single girl to grow up knowing that she can be whatever she wants to be regardless of what society tells her” and that being “why it’s called UNGirl, it’s not that we’re against girls it’s that we’re unlearning what society has pressured girls to be.” Starting the group back in 2019 whilst living in Vietnam Catriona, known as Cat, was teaching public speaking in a school for Vietnamese kids- “I was really inspired by public speaking as a skill, that if given to people alongside a space to speak that they really grow in confidence, especially women and younger girls. So, I was really empowered to create more opportunities for all women to speak and feel encouraged to use their voice.”
From this I get a sense that Cat is someone who is inherently outspoken. “I’ve always been open about things like sex and come from a very open family. I had this reputation in school about being the weird girl who talked about sex all the time.” Cat’s forthright approach is something she channels in UNGirl- describing the community in three words as “unmuted, unfiltered and uncensored.” When I ask her why “unmuted being I want to take the tape off women’s mouths. I want that to come off and women to feel that they can be loud, and they can talk about everything and anything. Unfiltered, because we have so many filters in life, we’re never really sure we are just are natural selves. Whether that be an Instagram filter or the way that we filter what we say. I think that we should just be able to be unfiltered. Then uncensored is because I’m not going to hold it in. I’m not going to censor myself and don’t think anybody should censor themselves. Especially not about things that are natural like sex.”
But what actually is UNGirl?- “Originally, I was running events to give women a space to speak about important topics, to connect and share stories and now I’ve used my online space to share my stories around taboo topics like sex and our bodies and through that I’m starting a discussion that I think needs to happen. So, I guess I’m trying to educate, empower and give women the tools to overcome the shame and enjoy themselves, enjoy their bodies more”. However, the kind of content Cat produces to educate people, particularly women, has developed recently “I’ve now specified to sex, sex education and learning about our bodies. I like to think of interesting ideas and do a bit of research, I watch things on Netflix, for example, that give me ideas about issues I see women face and that helps me get inspired and passionate. I tend to find controversial topics; they are usually the most interesting and try to talk about things that people are usually scared to discuss.” It then only seemed natural for me to ask Cat about the banning and censorship of her content, “my content gets censored quite a lot. I’ve gotten better at avoiding Instagram censorship rules but I’m definitely still hugely affected. I’ve been shadow banned a lot too which means my hashtags don’t show up to anybody that’s not following me and of course that’s had a huge impact on my growth. You end up having to be flexible and use weird ways of writing things, like numbers or not being super obvious but it’s difficult because you’re not porn you’re just talking about educational topics- it’s really frustrating!”
With her boyfriend Andreas describing her as “fierce, empathetic and a born leader” it comes as no surprise to me that one of Cat’s main inspirations is Frida Kahlo- “I’ve always been inspired by fundamental women that have challenged gender roles and push back against what society wants them to look like and behave like”. Despite only being slight in build and having the sweetest, syrupy Scottish lilt Cat really is a female powerhouse, driving a profound change in the female community and the future of UNGirl doesn’t stop here- “I definitely want to provide more in-depth content to help answer the questions I’ve been getting. Lots of people reach out to ask specific questions about anything from orgasms to birth control- I want to start a more private community where I can talk openly about these things without getting censored. Also, more events because the community is such a huge part of why I started this. Another huge goal that I have in mind, is I would love to write a book!”
So, what advice would she give her younger self, “trust yourself, focus on your own happiness and try to not worry about other people being happy because remember you can’t make others happy.”
Check out UNGirl on @weareungirls on Instagram and https://www.ungirl.org/
-ENDS-
831 WORDS
((HEADER)) “The Weird Girl That Talked About Sex”
((BODY COPY))
“What is your overall mission with UNGirl?” I speak to Catriona Lygate over Whatsapp voice note from Coswig, Germany. Catriona Lygate is the Scottish born activist behind UNGirl whose mission is “for every single girl to grow up knowing that she can be whatever she wants to be regardless of what society tells her” and that being “why it’s called UNGirl, it’s not that we’re against girls it’s that we’re unlearning what society has pressured girls to be.” Starting the group back in 2019 whilst living in Vietnam Catriona, known as Cat, was teaching public speaking in a school for Vietnamese kids- “I was really inspired by public speaking as a skill, that if given to people alongside a space to speak that they really grow in confidence, especially women and younger girls. So, I was really empowered to create more opportunities for all women to speak and feel encouraged to use their voice.”
From this I get a sense that Cat is someone who is inherently outspoken. “I’ve always been open about things like sex and come from a very open family. I had this reputation in school about being the weird girl who talked about sex all the time.” Cat’s forthright approach is something she channels in UNGirl- describing the community in three words as “unmuted, unfiltered and uncensored.” When I ask her why “unmuted being I want to take the tape off women’s mouths. I want that to come off and women to feel that they can be loud, and they can talk about everything and anything. Unfiltered, because we have so many filters in life, we’re never really sure we are just are natural selves. Whether that be an Instagram filter or the way that we filter what we say. I think that we should just be able to be unfiltered. Then uncensored is because I’m not going to hold it in. I’m not going to censor myself and don’t think anybody should censor themselves. Especially not about things that are natural like sex.”
But what actually is UNGirl?- “Originally, I was running events to give women a space to speak about important topics, to connect and share stories and now I’ve used my online space to share my stories around taboo topics like sex and our bodies and through that I’m starting a discussion that I think needs to happen. So, I guess I’m trying to educate, empower and give women the tools to overcome the shame and enjoy themselves, enjoy their bodies more”. However, the kind of content Cat produces to educate people, particularly women, has developed recently “I’ve now specified to sex, sex education and learning about our bodies. I like to think of interesting ideas and do a bit of research, I watch things on Netflix, for example, that give me ideas about issues I see women face and that helps me get inspired and passionate. I tend to find controversial topics; they are usually the most interesting and try to talk about things that people are usually scared to discuss.” It then only seemed natural for me to ask Cat about the banning and censorship of her content, “my content gets censored quite a lot. I’ve gotten better at avoiding Instagram censorship rules but I’m definitely still hugely affected. I’ve been shadow banned a lot too which means my hashtags don’t show up to anybody that’s not following me and of course that’s had a huge impact on my growth. You end up having to be flexible and use weird ways of writing things, like numbers or not being super obvious but it’s difficult because you’re not porn you’re just talking about educational topics- it’s really frustrating!”
With her boyfriend Andreas describing her as “fierce, empathetic and a born leader” it comes as no surprise to me that one of Cat’s main inspirations is Frida Kahlo- “I’ve always been inspired by fundamental women that have challenged gender roles and push back against what society wants them to look like and behave like”. Despite only being slight in build and having the sweetest, syrupy Scottish lilt Cat really is a female powerhouse, driving a profound change in the female community and the future of UNGirl doesn’t stop here- “I definitely want to provide more in-depth content to help answer the questions I’ve been getting. Lots of people reach out to ask specific questions about anything from orgasms to birth control- I want to start a more private community where I can talk openly about these things without getting censored. Also, more events because the community is such a huge part of why I started this. Another huge goal that I have in mind, is I would love to write a book!”
So, what advice would she give her younger self, “trust yourself, focus on your own happiness and try to not worry about other people being happy because remember you can’t make others happy.”
Check out UNGirl on @weareungirls on Instagram and https://www.ungirl.org/
-ENDS-
831 WORDS