Lady Parts
Lady Parts* is a three-part service that aims to destigmatize vaginal health and empower young adults to make informed health decisions.
*Lady Parts – We are reclaiming the term "lady parts" to empower women and all vagina owners.
My Roles
- Led literature review and user study.
- Architected service concept and system structure.
- Designed Care Kit end-to-end — concept, content, visuals, and packaging.
- Led expert and stakeholder outreach.
- Directed, shot, and edited the concept video
Vaginal health is deeply personal and varies across individuals, yet widely stigmatized.
For young individuals navigating reproductive health on their own for the first time, there's little guidance that fits their actual needs.
Lady Parts* is a university-based hybrid care system.
It pairs a self-screening tool and personalized questionnaire "Vaginality Test", along with a matched Care kit, turning an intimidating topic into an accessible, empowering experience.
women were embarrassed or unaware of the importance of talking with friends and family about gynecological health.
(The Guardian 2019)
believed that other people do not want to hear about their "vaginal problems."
(Kingsberg et al., 2019)
Self-Screening Mirror
Vaginality Test
Personalised Care kit
We are three young women living on our own for the first time in a foreign country, using our second language, and navigating a completely new healthcare system. Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is already sensitive where we come from, and the new environment makes things more challenging.
So we started with this overarching question:
How can we help young individuals
take charge of their vaginal health?
Illustration @Sahana
Still, sexual and reproductive health is a broad problem space. To identify the most pressing questions and locate the gap, we conducted an extensive literature review spanning from Menstruation, Sexual Health, and Health Literacy. We also conducted a competitive analysis to understand the landscape of local resources.
Screenshot of our teamspace on Figjam
Literature Review
We found that there remain significant unmet needs and barriers for young women navigating reproductive and gynecological care independently.
Recognizing these gaps is the first step to designing better support systems.
Key challenges include:
Information Gaps
Many women have received inadequate formal education before college.
In the United States, 41.6% of all pregnancies are unintended. This disproportionately affects women 20 to 24 years old [1,2]. Many college-aged women have received inadequate formal education on sexual/reproductive health before college.
Ineffective Education
A gender-sensitive approach to school-based sexuality education should be more emphasized
Students' experience of school-based sexuality education may be positively associated with their sexual behaviors and reproductive health outcomes, but such associations were stronger among males than females [3,4].
Cultural Stigma
Secondary research gave us a starting point, and effectively narrowed our project scope, user and stakeholder study, however, help us build empathy and shed light on individual experiences and state-of-the-art industry practices.
We focused on:
College students, mainly females living away from home for the first time and navigating a new sexual and reproductive healthcare system.
Team conducting affinity diagraming on whiteboard, and sharing user insights with advisors
Research Methods
First, we received 14 survey responses that covered various dimensions of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) literacy and the factors that influence it. To gain deeper insights, we also conducted guided storytelling with 3 college women from diverse cultural backgrounds, allowing us to understand their firsthand experiences in accessing and navigating healthcare resources and services. Additionally, we also consulted with 7 experts specializing in women's reproductive health, gaining insight into current healthcare practices.
Surveys
UserInterviews
ExpertInterviews
Composing survey questions
Research Synthesis
Through conversations with stakeholders from varied cultural backgrounds and widely across literacy levels, we identified 3 deeply rooted pain points. To quote from stakeholders:
The learning curve for us new students is intense.
There's a host of information probably about everything, its like suddenly we need to go from 0 to 100.
Anonymous College Student A
Build for confidence and empowerment.
For people from less developed areas, there's not a lot of empowerment, people just kinda feel their way through it.
Raelynn & Ashley
Industry Experts in
designing for women's health
Self-assessment and individual body knowledge is crucial.
Anatomy types of vaginas, activity level, ovulation patterns, clothing choices all affect care needs.
Brandi
Birth Doula
How might we empower young adults to make informed decisions about vaginal health and normalize it on campus?
The design goals are:
- Normalize vaginal health conversations on campus.
- Encourage self-care practices and build body literacy.
- Offer personalized, actionable care rather than one-size-fits-all advice.
Whiteboard - Thematic Analysis
There's no best solution, only the better ones. To flesh our ideas out, we conducted Crazy 8's, a fast-paced design sprint method where team members sketch eight distinct ideas in eight minutes (one minute per sketch) to quickly generate a wide variety of solutions. It prioritizes quantity over quality, pushing us beyond our first, often conventional, ideas to explore more innovative, diverse, and even "crazy" possibilities.
Crazy 8s Design Sprint
After rounds of iteration, we arrived at Lady Parts: a hybrid care system of three interconnected, low-cost components situated in universities.
Care System
User Flow
Destignatizing
We learnt that our users feel uncomfortable at having another health app monitoring their vagina data on their phone. So instead of a data tracker, we designed the questionnaire experience, a secure, conversational space for getting to know yourself.
@ourself.health
What did not work
A data-dashboard direction:
- Feels surveillant.
- Makes private info feel collected.
- Looks clinical.
Vaginality Test Questions
Where we landed
The questionnaire itself is the experience, with the aim to help users become more familiar with self checking.
A warm, slightly older female-friend voice walking you through self-checks.
Diagnosing vs. Preventing
We can't replace medical care, that's non-negotiable. But if we just send users to a doctor for everything, what are we even offering?
To answer that question, our test is designed to translate each user's answers into tailored preventive habits. It includes four areas: Knowing Your Vagina, Daily Care, Doctor Talk, Myth Busters. For example, thicker skin folds (labial hypertrophy) can make the area prone to trapped moisture and chafing, improved ventilation are encouraged to prevent irritation, odor, and infections.
Vaginality
Test Result
Prescribing medicine
Send users to doctors
for everything
Preventive care
Result Page
Bridging to a larger system
The problem isn't a lack of information, it's that what's out there feels generic and overwhelming, and the care system itself feels intimidating to step into.
Therefore, we built two bridges: a "Doctor Talk" section in the results that gives users the vocabulary to describe what they're experiencing, so they feel confident in walking into the doctors' office, and a personalized "Care Kit" they can pick up in person at University Health Services (UHS) as a soft first visit, so they are familiar with the building, the staff and the environment.
Doctor Talk: Turns each user's answers into vocabulary so users feel confident walking into the doctor's office.
Care Kit: A free, personalized kit users pick up in person at UHS, a soft first visit that makes coming back easier.
final design
Self-Screening Tool
The self-screening tool is a low-cost, ergonomic aid that helps users see the vaginal and vulvar area. The aim is to do away with the current barriers, such as unclear instructions, stigma, and high cognitive effort, by guiding users through a simple, confidence-building process.
It enables users to spot changes objectively, encouraging regular self-exams and more informed conversations with healthcare providers.
"Vaginality" Test
Inspired by personality tests, the "Vaginality" test is a lightweight app-based questionnaire that curates vaginal-care information according to users' culture, lifestyle, and physiological tendencies.
By replacing overwhelming online advice with a guided flow of questions and illustrated prompts, the test reduces cognitive load and stigma. It produces personalized information cards, which cover the basics of vaginal care, daily care practices, myths, "doctor talk," and warning signs to watch for.
App Screens
1 - Onboarding (click to interact)
2 - Vaginal Questions (click to interact)
3 - Results (click to interact)
Personalized Care Kit
The care kit delivers supportive items tailored to the user's Vaginality Test results. By aligning its contents with lifestyle, culture, and individual predispositions, the kit makes personalized care tangible and encourages ongoing self-advocacy.
something informational
Care Kit Inventory
something personal
Vaginal Probiotic
something useful
Vaginal pH Test
Vaginal Wipes
something resourceful
Discharge Check Guide
Local Resource Card
something playful
Stickers
something sweet
Chocolate
Care Kit
Kit Inventory
Discharge Check Guide
Stickers
Local Resources
Vaginality Test Card - Front & Back
On-Campus Touchpoints
Wellness-To-Go Vending Machine
Restrooms on Campus Buildings
University Health Services
Andrew Twigg, Stacie Rohrbach (Advisors)
Kristin Hughes, Ashley Deal, Raelynn O'Leary, Brandi Bogan, Dawnn Vith and other UHS Staff members (Experts)
Josiah Stadelmeier, Hali Simmons (3D Lab), Dylan Vitone (Smilie lab)
Summer Chao, Yujin Lee (TAs)
Evan Zhang, Michael Ruan (Cohorts)
Survey and interviews participants
- Rossen, Lauren, M. et al. (2023). Updated Methodology to Estimate Overall and Unintended Pregnancy Rates in the United States. 2(201).
- SDG Target 3.7 Sexual and reproductive health. (2022). Who.Int.
- Li, C., Cheng, Z., Wu, T., Liang, X., Gaoshan, J., Li, L., Hong, P., & Tang, K. (2017). The relationships of school-based sexuality education, sexual knowledge and sexual behaviors-a study of 18,000 Chinese college students. Reproductive health, 14(1), 103.
- Marcath, M., Craig, K., & O'Connell, M. B. (2025). Impact of Reproductive Health Education Seminars on College Students' Contraception and Safe Sex Knowledge and Behaviors. Pharmacy, 13(2), 39.
- AMV BBDO. (2020, July). Libresse Tells a "Wombstory" No Ad Has Told Before in Latest Taboo-Busting Ad.
- Mohammadi, F., Kohan, S., Mostafavi, F., & Gholami, A. (2016). The Stigma of Reproductive Health Services Utilization by Unmarried Women. Iranian Red Crescent medical journal, 18(3), e24231.
- John, J. N., Gorman, S., Scales, D., & Gorman, J. (2025). Online misleading information about women's reproductive health: A narrative review. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 40(5), 1123–1131.
- Baigry, M. I., Ray, R., Lindsay, D., Kelly-Hanku, A., & Redman-MacLaren, M. (2023). Barriers and enablers to young people accessing sexual and reproductive health services in Pacific Island Countries and Territories. PLOS ONE, 18(1), e0280667.
