LONDON — Julia Margo, COO and co-owner of pleasure brand Hot Octopuss, penned an op-ed this week in the British newspaper Metro, detailing her life growing up the daughter of a sex therapist.
Margo's mother, clinical psychologist and sexologist Janice Hiller, is the author of the recently released book, "Sex in the Brain: A Neuropsychosexual Approach to Love and Intimacy."
"‘What’s it like having a sex therapist for a mum?’ is a question I was asked so many times as a teenager," Margo shares in the article.
She goes on to describe overcoming her initial embarrassment at her mother's occupation.
"For some years, I simply stopped telling people what my mother did," Margo continues. "And for much of that time, I would probably have told you that I found her career just as humiliating as the troubled son of Gillian Anderson’s character in 'Sex Education.' I was just so aware of what she did.
"Now a parent and co-owner of British sex toy brand, Hot Octopuss, I’m far from being embarrassed by my mother," she adds. "In fact, I credit her for destigmatizing sex and masturbation at a time when most girls didn’t even know they could orgasm."
Margo also tells several anecdotes about her somewhat unusual upbringing, before coming full circle to her own children.
"With my own kids, I try to avoid embarrassing them too much, and I don’t want to be the sexpert mum around the kitchen table with them," she writes. "Still, I am deeply grateful to have never experienced the body confidence issues or shame around my own sexual pleasure and desires that so many of my generation seem to have. I try to pass that forward as much as I can."
To read the full article, click here.
