As a young woman, virginity was an albatross. To still have yours was an admission of your inactivity; you were behind the curve.

It was important to me to tell a story that was representative of the experiences of myself and the girls around me. So much of the media surrounding virginity is an absolute, an easily resolved story where somebody wins. But the reality for me, and for so many others was not so. It was instead the null set at the end of a self motivated thrust into adulthood: “Huh, that was weird and probably bad.”

My crew was a ruthless team of freaks from Baltimore; we spent an entire day shooting in a McDonald’s parking lot, no permission granted or apparently needed. It was a beautiful mixture of community support and guerilla tactics.

Drugstore Lipstick was an exercise in telling your own story, authentically, without apology.