This interview was from 2016 and appeared in the print edition of Cosmopolitan

1 - How did you first get started in the adult entertainment industry?

I got my start in the early 90s, when Colin (my husband) and I launched Wasteland.com. At the time, among the things we were selling in our online catalogs was bondage gear and items like leather clothes and accessories, and we noticed a lot more people were downloading the images than were ordering anything, and a light bulb went on inside our heads; maybe people would pay for access to images like these. Our hunch turned into a business that is over 20 years old now.

2 - Please give me a two to three-sentence description of Sssh.com.

Sssh.com creates porn catered to a woman’s point of view, and more specifically, porn based on the direct feedback and submissions which come from our members. Over the last 17 years, we’ve used survey data and member feedback to create content that is equal parts intelligent, sexy, and entertaining. The site has a huge selection of original movies, erotic novels, a radio station, an extensive 3D virtual world, educational videos, and articles, all offered in a sex-positive way.

3 - How did you decide to start Sssh.com?

Back in the 90s, I looked around the market and noticed there was very little adult content made with a woman’s perspective and aesthetic sense. The more people told me there was no market for such content because “women don’t watch porn,” the more convinced I became they had it backwards; there was no market because hardly anybody had tried catering to women as porn viewers. I thought it made sense to give it a shot, and here we are almost 17 years later and Sssh.com is going strong, so I guess there’s a market for porn for women after all.

4 - What sets Sssh.com apart from other adult content websites, even those that cater specifically to women?

The main thing is the interaction with our members. I don’t know of too many sites of any kind that do so much to assure they’re producing movies and other content which their members have requested. I did this from the very start on purpose. I didn’t want to just assume I knew what other women wanted to see, and I know from firsthand experience women get very tired of being told what they should want in life, so I thought I’d try asking them instead.

5 - There is a common misconception that pornography is made for, and used by, mostly a male audience. What have your experiences with Sssh.com and the adult film industry as a whole taught you about how females enjoy pornography?

experiences with Sssh.com and the adult film industry as a whole taught you about how females enjoy pornography? My experience has taught me if you try to dictate to people what they want, whether it’s in porn or any other creative medium, you’re likely to fail – if not financially, at least creatively. I’ve learned that our assumptions, however solid we might believe them to be, are just about always arguable, so it’s best not to assume, especially when the tools are right there in front of us to ask. It’s also taught me it’s dangerous to generalize. There’s still this idea out there that women all want the same thing from porn, and it’s just not true; our tastes are just as wide, varied and diverse as those of male porn viewers.