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Alice Derock is Expanding the Sex Toy Industry to Be More Inclusive

Alice Derock

Wet For Her CEO Alice Derock (right) with partner

Wet For Her (WFH), a lesbian and queer focused sex toy company, has launched into its next step to make the industry more inclusive. The company now has a line of toys specifically designed for transgender, nonbinary, intersex, and gender non-conforming folks.

Creator and founder Alice Derock is working to bring gender affirming sex toys to all members of the LGBTQ community with her new line of transmasculine products and an array of non-binary-inclusive toys that are in the manufacturing stages.

According to Derock, the inspiration behind the product expansion came from the fact that WFH has the pride flag in its branding — it can’t include that without serving all members of the community, she says.

“It’s not about putting out some products and selling them, it’s totally different,” says Derock. “It’s quite a journey to change your orientation or your sex or your identity, so we want to make it correctly, we want to make it right.”

Derock is working with a sex toy professional who is trans, perfecting the products so that they are empowering and affirming for everyone.

WFH launched 12 years ago when Derock became frustrated that there was nothing manufactured specifically for lesbian and queer couples. The sex toy industry is often male dominated and overwhelmingly focuses on straight couples. Now, over a decade later, Derock says she sees the same problem with a lack of lesbian-centered toys as toys for trans, non-binary, intersex and gender non-conforming toy users.

“The industry is really dominated by sales and revenue,” Derock says. “95% of the websites would just put a section in the website like for lesbians or for transgender [toys], but they have no idea of how to use the toy of what will what it will mean to the other person or to educate them.”

Because of this, Derock says a large part of her company operations focus on communicating directly to the consumer. With a fully online storefront, WFH cuts out the middleman, which is often, literally, a man.

“The message we want to bring to our customers is very clear, there’s no male distributor in the middle…where the message at the end is totally different from the beginning,” she explains.

As the holiday season rapidly approaches, Derock is also adding another level to the her empire — the Coming Out Box set. The set includes socks, a rainbow flag, pins, a notebook and a toy. It’s a “welcome to the family” kit.

“We thought it would be quite funny to have a coming out box for folks that come out of the closet, and to prepare them for what is coming next that they might not be aware of already,” she says.

With a team led exclusively by lesbian, queer and trans folks — from the family and working for the family, Derock says — she is looking forward to expanding what inclusive means for the WFH brand.

 

 

 

Clare Mulroy
Clare Mulroy
Clare Mulroy is a freelance journalist and trending reporter at USA TODAY. She is a recent graduate of American University and has experience covering entertainment, health, politics, breaking news and climate change. She is currently based in New York City.