VAGINA UNCENSORED: A Memoir of Missing Parts by Ally Hensley
Ally Hensley, acclaimed writer, speaker, and global MRKH advocate, has announced the launch of her debut memoir, VAGINA UNCENSORED: A Memoir of Missing Parts.
Combining raw honesty and unflinching courage, the book sees Hensley delve into the depths of her personal experience with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser Syndrome (MRKH), a rare congenital condition that affects over 10,000 British women, interrupting the development of the female reproductive system, causing the vagina and uterus to be underdeveloped or absent.
Priced at £12.99 (Paperback) and £5.99 (eBook), VAGINA UNCENSORED: A Memoir of Missing Parts is available to order on Amazon here.
Ally spent her life never quite fitting in, anywhere. Ally tried everything to understand her obsession with trying to prove her womanhood. However, it wasn’t something she, or anyone else, could explain.
Whilst she craved the ‘typical’ experiences aligned to becoming a woman; periods, pregnancy and giving birth — sex was her downfall.
Because sex she could do. Enter (ahem), vagina.
What school didn’t teach her was, if she couldn’t have sex, or fall pregnant, what kind of woman could she ever be? Like every twenty-something, Ally sought solace in boys, bingeing, and booze – the ultimate escape plan – until it wasn’t!
Meta has silenced thousands of sex-positive accounts in recent years. Sexual wellness brands, sex educators, activists, and sex workers have fallen foul to censorship. Instagram continues to suspend hundreds of high-profile accounts, cutting people off from the communities that keep them safe. Not only is social media their main source of ethical income, but this social media ‘cancel culture’ is sending one terrifying message to the world: ‘girls and women, your body is wrong.’
With online censorship shaming the masses, are we in turn, shadow-banning ourselves?
After what Ally describes as, “essentially losing her virginity with herself and plastic tubes”, she was adamant she’d take it for a decade-long road test. Sexed up and still infertile, there was only one thing Ally had in mind: make her vagina become her biggest career break yet!
But she was desperate to wake up to a new, and different purpose: to create a global movement in women’s health and happiness. Healed and inspired, Ally was finally ready.
Ally Hensley, Author, said: “At sixteen, my dreams of womanhood were shattered by a shocking diagnosis: I was born without a uterus or vagina. VAGINA UNCENSORED is a raw, inspiring memoir that chronicles my journey through grief, bodily trauma and self-discovery and challenges our understanding of what it means to be a woman.”
Whitefox Publishing Quote: “What makes Ally’s memoir so special is that she is able to bravely share her remarkable personal story in such a heartfelt, witty and relatable way. VAGINA UNCENSORED is an important book for so many reasons, and we feel very lucky that she chose Whitefox Publishing as its home.”
For further information or to request an interview with Ally Hensley, email alisonhensley@gmail.com or visit: https://allyhensley.com
Written by Ally Hensley
Author
Ally Hensley is an author, speaker, stigma shaker and global ambassador for women’s health and happiness. Ally has written for leading publications on mental health, infertility and body positivity, and has become a regular media contributor on her experience of being born with MRKH, a medical condition resulting in the absence of a womb and vagina.
In 2020, Ally co-produced the first short film about MRKH, alongside a leading digital storytelling brand, featuring women from across the globe who bravely shared experiences with MRKH. This film premiered at the World Congress for Paediatric and Adolescent Gynaecology in 2019, exposing the experiences of seven women across the globe as they told their unique and complex stories of their MRKH diagnosis.
As an international spokesperson for MRKH on how to redefine womanhood on her own terms, Ally advocates to raise support and awareness of this life-altering diagnosis. She founded Australia’s first MRKH organisation, MRKH Australia, in 2013, co-founded Global MRKH in 2016 and is a board member of the UK’s flagship charity, MRKH Connect.
Her podcast Stigma Shakers recently launched, and just two seasons in, this stigma-focused show has been featured by the BBC, among many other national publications, and has reached over 150k views. Now, Stigma Shakers is recognised as not just a taboo-tackling platform, but a social movement, in questioning: ‘Is the only thing normal in this world difference?’
Ally works to reduce the stigma surrounding sexual (mental) health and prompts conversations that matter. She defines herself as a realistic but scrappy dreamer – where fact is essential, and originality is to be absolutely embraced.
Links:
Writer + Author of Vagina Uncensored: A Memoir of Missing Parts
Host of Stigma Shakers Podcast
Website : www.allyhensley.com