Charlie Brooks, the actress best known for playing Janine Butcher in the unreasonably long-running BBC TV soap opera Eastenders (it started in February 1985, for anyone wondering), has made an unlikely move into sextech with the release of a vulva-focused vibrator in collaboration with Ann Summers.
The device is called The U Self Love Stimulator. It sells for $135 when shipping to the US and is £100 in the UK. Admittedly, the lure of ‘Janine from Eastenders‘ might not stretch all the way across the Atlantic.
Celebrity-designed and endorsed vibrating sextech products are nothing new, with everyone from model and actress Cara Delevingne to the late Marilyn Monroe having their names put alongside various devices. However, Brooks is not known for a highly-sexualized media persona, making her move into the sphere a break from the sex toy marketing norm.
The device Brooks created, according to Ann Summers, is designed to cradle the vulva rather than penetrate the vagina, stimulating the external genital area with vibrations. This style of design is something of a new trend, with other recently-released devices such as MysteryVibe’s Legato and Cerē’s Lalalena focusing on external genital stimulation without phallic designs.
The U Self Love Stimulator is made from body-safe silicone and has five vibration design patterns and intensities. It’s charged via USB cable.
Brooks said that she was inspired to design a sextech device after feeling uncomfortable with her body.
“Realized I didn’t know enough about it, so I went on a journey of the body and mind. It’s a powerful one, and I’d love you to go on one too,” she wrote on Instagram.
She added that the process of making the product helped her “battle through their own fear and self-doubt, be curious and learn more about their self, body and mind”.
Beyond Eastenders, Brooks has appeared in TV shows such as Wired, Heartbeat and London’s Burning. In 2012 she won the TV series reality show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!.
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