This Sexy, New Self-Pleasure Site Is Run By Caroline Spiegel, Sister To Snapchat's CEO
Porn is basically everywhere on the internet these days, and for some people, it’s a useful tool to help them explore and embrace their sexuality. But for others, the current selection isn’t really turning them on. Caroline Spiegel knows this all too well, and she’s on a mission to help porn feel more imaginative and female-friendly. That’s why Quinn, Caroline Spiegel’s site dedicated to audio porn and erotica, is here to change the way we think about self-pleasure.
Caroline Spiegel, the younger sister of Snapchat CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel, is launching a brand new platform for users to upload audio files or sexy stories they want to share with others. The website, which went live on April 13, is a “turn-on community of anonymous people,” according to Spiegel. Instead of using visual content, Quinn is entirely made up of audio and written work to allow women be more inventive about what turns them on. It’s totally free, and there’s no login required — if you want to comment or post something, you can do it under an anonymous username.
The platform is unique because it’s geared specifically toward female pleasure, and it departs from traditional norms about porn as a visual medium. Spiegel decided to create the site after developing sexual dysfunction as a symptom of her anorexia. She realized that many of her female friends were feeling similar dissatisfaction. “I started talking to my friends, and was like, ‘Are you guys orgasming regularly? Are you feeling sexually fulfilled?’, she tells Elite Daily. “And I got this resounding answer, which was, ‘We’re just frustrated, and content out there isn’t really doing it for us’…. I realized there was this need that wasn’t really being met.”
Spiegel, along with her friend (and now business partner) Greta Meyer, started reaching out to sex therapists and porn creators to learn about the industry. They conducted user interviews to see what content women responded to most avidly. (Spiegel declined to comment on the specific demographics of her user research.) Interestingly, they discovered that video wasn’t what most users wanted. “We find that [videos are] extremely limiting in terms of your imagination,” Spiegel says. With Quinn, users have more opportunity to get creative about their fantasies. Rather than watching a video of people having sex, they can listen to sexy audio while creating a mental image of whatever makes them feel super hot. “You don’t need to be forced into one picture of what sexy is,” she explains. “Different things turn on different people, and that’s life. And that’s the fun of it.”
Even though the website is all about self-pleasure, Spiegel thinks it could change the way women think about their bodies and their sexuality. “I think that if women understood their pleasure more, maybe the dynamic in sex would change,” she explains. “Because when you know what makes you orgasm, you’re more likely to orgasm with your partner, and you feel overall more sexually fulfilled. The platform is about connection.”
As the younger sister of one of the biggest names in the tech industry, Spiegel looks to her brother’s work with Snapchat as inspiration. “I admire and look up to him more than I can put into words,” she says. The siblings talk often, and Evan "gives me amazing advice," Spiegel notes, though she told TechCrunch he is not an investor. Still, the young entrepreneur is learning a lot in her own right, revealing how thankful she is for the adult entertainment professionals and content creators who have helped along the way. “It’s challenging and it’s fun,” she says of the process. “What I really hope is that women can find joy with Quinn.”
Most of all, Spiegel is learning how varied one person’s sexual fantasies are from the next. And whereas men often masturbate to make up for a lack of satisfying sex, a 2017 study found that women's libido increases the more they masturbate — therefore, more masturbation leads to better and more frequent sex, and vice versa.
Men are also more likely than women to get off by watching porn. According to a 2015 report by WeVibe, 81 percent of people who have masturbated to porn are male — women, on the other hand, prefer to use their imaginations. “All they need is a little imagination aid, something to take the leg work out," Spiegel says. Women shouldn’t feel limited by the porn they see on the internet, much of which is geared toward the male gaze — the camera follows the perspective of the male performer, and the sex depicted is tailored primarily toward the man's satisfaction. Instead, Quinn is aiming to help women embrace whatever view of sex feels exciting to them, no matter what that looks like.
