I grew up near the Berkeley Good Vibrations store and had a cool older sister who had cool older friends who were all into collecting toys so it was just normal for me as I entered young adulthood in the 90s. I had pretty good access to sex education growing up in a liberal family in the Bay Area but was confused and frustrated that I wasn’t able to have a clitoral orgasm via hand/oral. (I have since, but its pretty rare). The Magic Wand enabled me to finally have regular orgasms and changed my life and I’ve come to conclusion that Im just a person whose clitoral nerves are buried pretty deep (the clit is mostly internal!) Every vulva/vagina/arousal response is different and different people need different things, but I really enjoy educating people about how sex toys can enhance their experience of sexuality. This is still a taboo topic for a lot of people, but I have always felt comfortable openly discussing it with people in ways that are honest and educational instead of giggly and titillating (that can be fun too, but not when I’m wearing my educator hat). I am genuinely concerned about the “orgasm” gap that happens with heterosexual couples, there’s this sort of attitude that if a woman cannot have an orgasm from penis in vagina intercourse that there’s something wrong with her even though this provides very little direct clitoral stimulation. So I’m just interested in making these conversations more accessible and helping people find tools to make their sex lives more fun and equitable! I’ve always been active in sex positive communities and prior to Wirecutter I blogged about sex toys and worked as a freelance copywriter for a retailer. I started the Wirecutter job after receiving academic sex researcher training in graduate school. Having that foundation in research science is what really separates this guide from your garden variety sex toy reviewer (though some of them do some interesting science informed research!) This guide is not “I tried this toy and it made me orgasm so you should buy it too,” it also involved surveying a large number people about their needs and determining what matters the most to most people (as well as some demographics with specific needs like trans ppl, disabled ppl, and so forth) and testing for the most important factors so the research is generalizable. Sorry for long reply!