This women-led wellness and pleasure brand wants to break the taboo around sexual wellbeing
Delhi-NCR-based Sassiest is a doctor-backed wellness and pleasure brand that offers pleasure products as well as provides expert advice from gynaecologists, life coaches, sexologists, and more.
For five years, Aishwarya Dua suffered an abusive relationship, not understanding that it had both physical and mental impact on her health.
This harrowing experience also made her realise that emotional wellbeing is connected to both sexual and physical wellbeing, something women are afraid to talk about, or seek help for.
Aishwarya Dua, Karishma Chawan and Dr Nikita Dound
“It was a traumatic time, and I was dealing with a lot of mental health issues. I understood, like me, there must be many women who don’t talk about how relationships affect their physical, mental, and sexual health, and suffer silently,” she tells HerStory.
It’s a known fact that topics surrounding sex and sexual health and wellbeing still remains a taboo topic in India, and most women are afraid to own their own sexuality, for the fear of being termed “loose” or “cultureless”. For those belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community, the fear of being labelled is even worse, with few resources that offer them a safe space to voice their concerns or help with advice.
In January 2021, Aishwarya started building , which she says is India’s first doctor-backed wellness and pleasure brand. Sassiest has two verticals–one offering pleasure products, and the other provides expert advice from gynaecologists, life coaches, sexologists, and more.
“I started working at 16 and tried my hands in multiple fields like dance, theatre, PR, graphic design, and then entrepreneurship. I was a co-founder of Youthance at 23--an on-demand temporary staffing platform, where one can hire or work for a one-time and short-term gig,” she says.
Despite failing in the startup, she still decided to give entrepreneurship another go. Her mother supported her by breaking her last fixed deposit and told her to go ahead and start Sassiest.
She got on board her friends, Karishma Chavan and Dr Nikita Dound, as advisers.
Their experiences with relationships were similar. While doing her MBBS, Dr Nikita came out of the closet.
“I went through a lot of relationship issues and also faced judgement from both friends and peers who didn’t understand that I could be attracted to both men and women,” she says.
Suffering from PCOS and Hashimoto’s disease, Nikita also faced body image issues due to hair loss and other side-effects. When she got talking with Aishwarya, she was interested in the concept of consultations for sexual health and immediately joined pro bono. In May this year, she and Karishma became co-founders of Sassiest.
Karishma is a professional choreographer working in Bollywood for the past 18 years.
“Since I was a child, I have been on the heavier side. I was always not good enough because of my weight. A lot of body shaming happened because I was supposed to be a certain size, weight, and look. Even my marriage left me feeling dissatisfied and there was no place to go to for guidance regarding sexual health or intimacy issues,” she points out.
When Aishwarya shared her idea of Sassiest, and invited her to become an adviser, it piqued her interest.
“Here was a woman proactively doing something for women who don’t have a voice or know their rights to pleasure. I thought it best to join hands to help other women and LGBTQIA+ community to have a safe space to express themselves,” Karishma says.
Karishma believes, in India, sex is largely for reproduction, with sex education even in schools focused on menstruation and reproduction after marriage.
“No one talks about consent, safe sex, pleasure, or exploring yourself or your sexual orientation in general because there is still stigma surrounding these topics. It’s also about being shamed for things going wrong or being judged,” she says.
Inclusive environment
So, an important part of Sassiest is sex positive and queer inclusive online consultants from qualified medical experts. These include a gynaecologist, sexologist, sexual health coach, life and relationship coach, mental health coach, and a nutritionist.
“Most of our traction comes from secondary cities where gynaecologist or other doctors who are not really open about premarital sex. It’s heartening to note that girls are starting to take control of their lives when they are entering relationships. And all they need to need is someone to talk to, because sex education for them somewhat comes from pornography. It’s simple--India needs a place where women and LGBTQIA+ community can talk openly about their sex lives, their desires, traumas, and health issues, which needs to be solved,” says Aishwarya.
For eight months, Sassiest provided free consultations, and the platform had more than 1,200 people asking for expert advice. Now, each consultation costs around Rs 550 and Rs 950.
Aishwarya emphasises that Sassiest places equal importance on both aspects--D2C and the service channel.
The product offering has 12 SKUs, including massagers, lubes, stimulators, oils, and other products for sexual pleasure sourced from a third-party manufacturer in China. Surprisingly, they are not listed as sex toys on the website.
Aishwarya explains, “In India, pleasure products are legal as long as they do not resemble any parts of the human anatomy and does not look ‘obscene’. But the moment we mention them as “sex toys” or in similar terms, our website or social media posts get flagged. When you are a startup, you cannot afford your ads to be compromised. Also, some of these massagers also provide relief from pain.”
The founders call themselves as “builders” – bringing consultations and unique products and therefore this model makes Sassiesst unique in the market.
She is keen on exposing the brand to as many women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community as possible.
“We want them to know we are available, if ever they need help. Our aim is for adolescents to be able to freely ask questions, young adults to explore their sexual orientation, adults to live the way they want–without being judged,” she concludes.
Edited by Megha Reddy