I can’t believe I’ve been running this sex toy review blog for 10 years! It has made me nostalgic. Here are some thoughts about this amazing journey.
How it began
At some point, during the last few months of 2014, I was staring at a heap of sex toys I’d just purchased. Most of them were terrible, and I was angry. I’d believed the nicely written raves on the store’s product pages, people who promised me that those toys were incredible… and so I’d purchased over $100 worth of toys (a significant amount for me). But they weren’t incredible, and I felt duped.
I couldn’t return them, so I wrote reviews on the store’s product pages. Those reviews were submitted pending approval, but were never approved… so my frustration was never aired to other potential customers.
I decided that I wanted to help prevent other people from buying crap toys. I was going to become a sex toy tester.
I knew it was possible because I’d watched Frisky Business, a documentary on one of UK’s leading sex toy shops (Lovehoney) and there was a brief reference about a sex toy tester. That sent me down a Google spiral, where I found a handful of sex toy review blogs. Most of them are no longer around, but I remember them: Emmeline Peaches, Property of Potter, Hey Epiphora, The Gritty Woman, ArchVixen, Naughty Reenie… they were SO inspiring.
So my tech-y boyfriend helped me set up my own website: MissRubyReviews.com. I published my first review in January 2015. I had no idea how big it would become.
MissRubyReviews.com was started during a hard time in my life. I was in my 20s. I had NO money. I was in a graduate program that I hated. I had no supportive family to fall back on. I was struggling with anxiety and traumatic stress, and I was paying for therapy with my student loans. I was also autistic, but I wouldn’t find that out for many more years.
I was not in a good place, but this blog was good for me. Sex toys (and this blog) very quickly became my special interest (in the neurodivergent sense); that means that I lived, breathed, and dedicated all my geeky effort to it willingly and happily and could NOT get enough.
It was a hobby that I treated like a job. I learned how to send business emails, market myself to prospective sponsors, take better product photography, and treat this topic with a neutral, clinical lens.
Over time, this blog remained my side “hobby/job” that I couldn’t seem to ever give up. There were periods when I couldn’t dedicate much time to it, but I never threw in the towel. I moved between many different apartments, and my boxes of sex toys and my plans for future blogging came with me. I’ve had to constantly prune down my sex toy collection and just keep my favourites, because if I didn’t I’d literally be drowning in sex toys, but I still have too many somehow.
The sex toy industry back then
In 2015, the sex toy industry was still trying to get rid of its seedy reputation. Product marketing was commonly cringy and sexist and gross (Pipedream products were terrible with this). Sex toys were still considered a little dirty, they certainly weren’t sold in big box stores, and toys just looked different.
We didn’t have any pressure wave suction toys back then. So many sex popular sex toys were still made of porous, nonhygienic materials like jelly or TPR. A vibrator wasn’t particularly likely to be rechargeable or be waterproof. A vibrator that was silicone, rechargeable, and waterproof was rare, and it would cost well over $100. Bodysafe toys just cost more, and they weren’t necessarily orgasmic anyway.
And back then, sex bloggers were anonymous!
Yes, sex bloggers were completely anonymous back then. Just about every sex toy review blogger I knew hid behind a cartoon avatar. No one showed their face. Nowadays, I think I might be one of the last “original” (mid-2010s era) sex toy bloggers to still completely hide behind an avatar. It’s amazing that the sex toy reviewing blogosphere has become so transparent and proud and visible. But I remain a shy creature 🙂
How far things have come
It is AMAZING how far the sex toy industry has come in the last decade. Jelly rabbits have been relegated to the shadows of internet history. A buyer today can spend $40 and get a strong, silicone, rechargeable vibrator. There are endless sex toy review bloggers out there (some genuine, others not!).
And 10 years later, I have written over 300 reviews. It feels like it should be more, but when I think about how much time and effort and words go into each review, that’s rather something. Most of my reviews are between 1000-1700 words long, so we’re looking at up to half a million words written about sex toys. Then there essays and other miscellaneous posts on top of that.
Now I’m in my 30s. I’ve settled into myself. My mental health is great. My boyfriend and I married ages ago and started a family. I live in the most picturesque part of Canada.
And I consider myself so lucky to have had front-row seats to witness these last 10 years of the sex toy industry.
What are some highlights from the last 10 years?
1. Speaking out against questionable marketing practices:
- 2015: I yelled about this company using fat shaming to promote their products in 2015 and they quickly backpedalled.
- 2017: I called out this company for using sexual violence in a marketing video, and they fixed the issue.
- 2018: A company published a piece speaking out against sex toy reviewers, and I reminded them why honest negative sex toy reviews are critical.
- 2019: I yelled at Pipedream products for being so disgusting, and they changed how visible their content was
- 2021: I noticed that Womanizer has been greenwashing products.
2. Helping so many people figure this whole orgasm thing out. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been emailed by readers asking for orgasm advice. I’m not a sex therapist, but people do turn to me for advice. I’m particularly proud of an email exchange where one 40-something woman who had NEVER had an orgasm before asked me for advice, and within a few emails we figured out what she needed to do differently to get to orgasm.
3. Getting to see so many amazing products and innovations. Seriously, it’s been an honour. I’ve been amazed at the effort and innovations that sex toy companies have been dreaming up.
4. Working with so many great companies. I’ve emailed with hundreds of companies over the last decade. So many little sex toy startups and come and gone, but others have stuck around and become big, booming businesses. I’ve worked closely with a few (especially Peepshow Toys, Betty’s Toy Box, and the Lovehoney Group), and I’ve appreciated all the support I’ve received from them over the years.
Concerns about the future?
Am I concerned about the future of the sex toy reviewing blogosphere? Honestly, sometimes I wonder if we’re a dying breed. I’ve no doubt that we’ll still be around in 10 years time, but beyond that? I can see our blogs continuously being pushed down search engine results in favour of massive AI-assisted “reviewing” websites that use stock photography. My hope and plan is that my own website will still be around, and I hope that other bloggers who are genuinely passionate about the industry continue to build their audiences. As a group, we have done a lot and we work to keep this sex toy industry in check.
How can you support sex toy bloggers?
Make sure you’re trusting your purchasing power with recommendations from actual sex bloggers who are passionate about sex toys and sex toy safety. Shop from our links! Most of us use affiliate links to finance our blog. Every penny helps to keep us going.
Thanks, everyone, for the last 10 years. Here’s to another decade!
Last Updated on December 21, 2024 by Miss Ruby
