Why are young girls asking for vaginal cosmetic surgery?

“There is a lot of stigma around vaginas and genitalia and it’s very ‘hush hush’. You don’t really talk about it much I think because when you are in your teens that’s kind of the time where you are thinking about your body more – things are changing, there’s hair and stuff like that – so it was good to have that experience (of seeing a doctor) and to know there was nothing wrong with (my labia)” – Kathy*

Kathy was just 13 when she started thinking her vagina didn’t look right.

Her worries began in PE class at school when she saw textbook drawings that she felt didn’t look like her vulva at all. She was so worried she made her Mum take her to a doctor to explore the option of surgery.