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A full time blogger and digital nomad for the past five years, Emma McGowan writes primarily about startups and sex. Her work has appeared in Mashable, The Daily Dot's The Kernel, Mic, Bustle, The Bold Italic, KillerStartups, and MiKandi. She's the Editor in Chief at the sex tech website Kink&Code.
This is just a sampling of Emma's work. Links to each website can be found at http://emmamcgowan.com/.
Acquisition is often the end goal for so many startups, especially if they took on venture capital at any point during their journey. Founders dream of multi-million dollar exits as they code for the fourteenth hour that day, when they skip meals because they're on a roll, and when they forego (precious) time with their families.
The first thing you notice when you arrive at Aeclectic Tarot, the internet's largest resource for tarot cards and the people who love them, is that it feels like a step back in time. A time when the internet was still small; when personal pages would put together by hobbyists; when online forums still felt like loving communities.
I was raised in sex-positive household. My mom bought me a copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves when I was like... Nine? So I really thought that I knew all there was to know about my genitals. I knew the proper name for everything from my labia majora to my
My mom had sex for the first time in 1967. I had sex the first time in 2002 - and the differences between my experiences as a sexually active teen and my mom's are stark. I had really good sex education in school, even under Bush's administration. I
Wednesday, March 29, Planned Parenthood is planning a Pink Out Day. Yup, you read that right - a pink out. The constantly embattled reproductive rights organization is looking to send a message to lawmakers that their support is vast and the way they
Coffee shops have become de-facto coworking spaces, a situation that isn't working well for anyone. But where can the growing mobile work force go instead? Find...
The Women's March on January 21, 2017 was an historic moment, with millions of people marching around the world the day after Trump was sworn into office. And from photos on the ground to aerial ones showing the massive crowds, there was one standout
Recently, the internet exploded when Buzzfeed released a 35-page unverified document compiled by a former British intelligence official about Donald Trump and his associations with and actions in Russia.
As a startup founder, you've undoubtedly put a lot of thought into building your team. After all, the experts all say that a great team is essential if your startup is going to avoid being one of the 90 percent that fails.
I've been a digital nomad (or "slow traveler" or "location independent worker" or whichever buzzword you prefer) for over five years now. I quit my life in 2011 after the Great Recession meant there was no way out of my dead end job as a social worker and bought a one-way ticket to Argentina.
Navigating sexual boundaries can be tricky. Sometimes it's hard to even figure out what your sexual boundaries are, much less enforce them. Other times you don't even know you have a boundary until just after someone has stepped over it. And then the
Marc Nager has spent the past eight years of his life building Startup Weekend into one of the biggest startup ecosystems in the world. His next big bet? Small ...
Young people don't like voting - but they do like nudes. Or at least, that's the premise behind Tramps Against Trump (NSFW), which started during the primary season as a way to get people more involved in the election. The premise was simple: Send ev
For generations, San Francisco has been home to the rest of the country's misfits, whether free-loving hippies or leather-daddy gay men. San Francisco could be counted on to welcome the "freaks," the sexual deviants. The city told them, "Don't pay attention to what the rest of them say.
Hey ladies! Welcome to Week Three of "Globetrotting Girl Boss" life! This week, we're so excited to chat with Emma McGowan - the 28-year-old professional blogger and Globetrotting Girl Boss currently exploring Bali, Indonesia! Her work has appeared in Mashable, Bustle, The Daily Dot's The Kernel, The Bold Italic, KillerStartups, and MiKandi.
Five years ago, I was sitting next to a couple I'd just met at a friend's dinner party in Brooklyn. They were the type of adorable couple that makes you want to puke, holding hands underneath the table and finishing each other's sentences.
Like a lot of women my age, I started taking hormonal birth control in my teens.
If you're ready to be a trans ally, it's time to think about how you can be more trans-inclusive in your daily life. The first trans person that I knew was a transgender man I lived with after college.
My brothers committed multiple crimes when they were kids. They threw eggs at cars (vandalization of personal property), stole street signs (felony theft), and got wasted regularly way before they turned 21 (underage drinking).
Startups
How does having a entrepreneur parent shape a person's life and career? Kelly Cornell, son of designer and retailer April Cornell, talks family, business, and w...
What happens when a Disney brand director and a Venezuelan flower farmer team up? A multimillion dollar flower company that is shaking up the florist industry. ...
Jennifer McEwen was at a tech gala in Seattle when a male attendee asked her what her company does. She explained that her sex tech company, MiKandi, is a third-party Android app store that hosts adult content by artists, adult studios and game creators.
Editor's note: this editorial is part of The Bold Italic's ongoing mission to publish opinions that help move the current tech and culture debate in San Francisco forward. If you have strong opinions on the topic, email your pitch to [email protected]. I am an artist: I'm a writer, a painter, a seamstress, and a scribbler.
It took a long time for my boyfriend, Benjamin, and I to learn how to work from home as a couple. When we met, we were both working online from a coffee shop on the Chilean coast.
Not to get all Freudian on you right from the get go, but sometimes an eggplant emoji isn't just an eggplant. In these days of sexting, sometimes that eggplant is signifying a whole lot more. A group of Bay Area designers decided that it was time to bring the language of emojis up to date with the reality of how we have sex online.
TL;DR: A lot of startup founders joke that they're "married" to their co-Founder, but Michael and Angela Smith actually are married. Their secret to success? Never turning off. People say that the co-Founder relationship is like a marriage - but what about when it actually is a marriage?
I am not one of those people who loves working out. You know the type, right? They get off on endorphins and sweating or whatever. They talk about "runner's highs" and "pushing through the burn" and, honestly, I kind of want to smack them because while I'm not someone who loves working out, I am someone who loves eating.
I believe passion is infectious, and when you get likeminded individuals in a room together, discussing real change and impact for not only a company or organization, but also an entire city, it creates a real sense of dedication.
Manuel Frigerio, Founder of the popular viral marketing widget Maître, explains the science behind making a campaign go viral.
James Wolf started one of his companies, The Bike Shop - which is located in the expat hub of Thao Dien in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - after pressure from friends pointing out that it was a much-needed business for the neighborhood. But he's not in it for the cash.
Britini Port arrived in Guatemala in 2012 for a Peace Corps mission and she's been there ever since, running a high fashion shoe and bag company, Uxibal, from a tiny factory that's located in the front room of her house. But it hasn't all been easy.
Sex, Sex Positivity, and Social Justice
I used to think that scheduling sex was the ultimate in sad old people behavior; the stuff of suburban parents and crappy sitcoms . "Sex should be spontaneous!" I thought. "How unromantic!" I scoffed. "You should just be drawn to each other" I insisted.
When John Kershaw launched his beard-focused dating app, Bristlr, in 2014, he let his users identify in one of two ways: those with beards and those without beards. What was noticeably absent from the sign up process, however, was any kind of gender
As a woman who, a) has been in an emotionally abusive relationship in the past, and b) has ears and eyes, I truly can't fathom any woman choosing to vote for Trump or tolerating a partner who supports Trump. And look, I'm not against having differenc
I was a serious about passing notes in school. Like, I probably spent at least 80 percent of my time writing notes to my friends, responding to notes to my friends, and thinking about notes I wanted to pass to my friends. Because I'm #TeamOlderMillen
When I decided I wanted to lose my virginity, I told my dad before I even told my high school boyfriend. I was 15, flying on first love, and I knew that I was ready.
A young woman I'm close with reached out recently on Facebook because she's worried she might be pregnant. In her late teens, living in the South, and newly sexually active, this isn't the first time she's come to me with sex questions. How exactly do condoms work?
C Just was half-listening to Bangor High School vice principal Bryan Doyle's back-to-school assembly when he said something that brought her to attention. Doyle was addressing the girls in the audience, telling them, "Ladies, we don't want to see your bra straps."
Ah, one night stands. They're the source of many a cringe-worthy story, the driver of multiple hour long drama plot lines, and sometimes the best sex you'll ever have in your life. Especially for folks who live in big cities - or anyone who has ever lived abroad, ever - one night stands can be a common part of modern life.
I was a late adopter of hashtags, associating them more with #TBThursday and #SundaySelfies than anything I really gave a shit about. That was, however, until the #RedefiningRealness hashtag popped up on my Twitter feed.
That's the last line in an article in the Economist about their recent study of the shift in sex work from the streets to the internet. It's a well thought out, solid line: The internet has, without question, disrupted the institution of prostitution.
Picture a street in the city you're most familiar with. You're walking along, listening to music on your headphones, trying not to step in dog poop. You're in your own world, doing your thing, when suddenly a giant, disembodied dick jumps out from the bushes in front of you. SURPRISE!
Last month, bill AB1576 passed through the California legislature. Known more commonly as "the condom bill," AB1576 is a workplace safety bill that requires condoms be worn on all porn sets during any and all instances of anal, vaginal, or oral intercourse.
Apparently there's a new trend in pubic hair, called the "full-bush Brazilian," which involves stripping the hair off of the labia and butt but leaving the jungles wild up-top. Named by the arbiters of cool at last year after a conversation with a popular waxer, the oxymoronic pubic style is said to be popular with "hippies with porny sex lives, who need to be hairless for licking."
Having grown up in San Francisco, Elise Moreno knows that this is a great place to discover amazing things both personal and cultural. After four years of school in Seattle, she has just returned home and is on a mission to better understand herself, her city, and 100 men.
On a recent episode of Lena Dunham's new podcast, "Women of the Hour," gynecological nurse practitioner Lola Pellegrino told Dunham (and the rest of us) to "ruin dinner." While Pellegrino was talking specifically about how to fight for reproductive rights, her message can be expanded to include all
Here at MiKandi, we love anything that's both sexy and, well, kinda geeky. And no, we're not talking porn with fake Buddy Holly glasses although, let's be real: we love that too. Nope, we're talking honest-to-god nerd-stuff that also gets people off.
I just read about something that I absolutely have to share with you all, MiKandi readers. Apparently, cam girls on Chaturbate are using audio-sensitive vibrators to "literally orgasm to the sound of money." These women have combined two awesome sex tech innovations - cam shows and teledildonics - to work their way to orgasm.
Whether you're an online dating evangelist or you wish the word "tinder" still only applied to starting a campfire, there's no denying that the internet has changed the way we meet, hook up, and pair off. One of the biggest players in the online dating world is OkCupid, that pioneer of the questionnaire-based matching algorithm, and Christian Rudder is the man behind the machine.
Sex Tech
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Fleshlight's new iPad holster and dropped a whole bunch of future/sex terms without really explaining what the hell I was talking about. Sometimes when you write about this stuff day in and day out you forget that not everyone speaks the super nerdy, not-really-sexy-at-all terminology that you throw around like grade 5 vocabulary.
Cindy Gallop is a 54 year old wildly successful businesswoman who talks freely and openly about her penchant for casual sexual relationships with much, much younger men. She's also the only TED talk participant to say the words "come on my face" on stage - six times each session, to be exact.
When you search "buy Fundawear," the post that I wrote ages ago* is the first thing that comes up. "Fundawear" is one of the top searches that leads people to Kink&Code and over the past year I've heard from a huge number of couples who are separated because of work, military, or visa status but still want to keep intimacy alive.
Ben and Sarah met on Match. After a few messages back and forth, they took their conversation to email. Pics were exchanged and soon they were talking on FaceTime every night and their conversations got, well, a little more "R" rated. Ben was in New York and Sarah was in D.C.