Simran Balar Jain: Woman who made uncomfortable conversations easier

Simran Balar Jain, a sexual health and lifestyle content creator with more than 900,000 followers across social media platforms. Simran's content stands out and is so ostracized that you rarely see it on social media. She also displays her keen sense of dressing, her beauty and skincare regime on social media for all her adoring followers.

Simran's content on sexual health is one that is valued by millions. Women's reproductive hygiene and health have traditionally been taboo subjects. Women don't want to talk about it since it is so stigmatised. In a country where talking about sexual health and intercourse is highly disparaged, Simran is breaking boundaries everyday with her well-thought content. Her content explores topics from sexual and women's health to delightful comedy skits. She has collaborated with various brands and also a TED Speaker.

In her exclusive conversation with 'The Hans India,' Simran share her journey ups and downs. Let's have a look into it.

What made you start your digital content creation journey?

I always loved being in front of the camera from my college days and always wanted to do something in this space. I have been passionate about content creation since my final year of college where every day I used to wear different outfits and style them and just write about them on my blog.

Eventually, during Covid, I thought that there are so many creators in the fashion and beauty space and I wasn't able to crack something different or out of the box. That made me to make videos on woman's hygiene which got immense love.

Why you chose to explicitly talk about sexual health and women's hygiene?

While scrolling through YouTube, I saw a couple of international creators talking about woman's hygiene and sex education freely and I knew that this particular subject is very less spoken in India and is always considered a "shame" to talk about. There are numerous misconceptions surrounding sex in India.

In the beginning, I was very scared to do it as I knew the comments and reactions wouldn't be good as I'm talking about a subject which is very less spoken in India but I was very thick skinned and the comments never bothered me as I was very sure of talking about sex.

I had to choose this niche as there were many people around me who had numerous misconceptions about topics related to sex and hygiene. This made me realise that if my own people are dealing with misconceptions about sex and hygiene, then there must be others too. Though the internet is full of information on sex, still people have such bizarre questions and doubts about it which are enough to get you thinking. Like 'seal todna' on a woman's virginity, can't take shower in periods or while you are pregnant, etc. It only shows to what level people need sex education in India.

Was it easy for you to establish yourself in this genre knowing how these are taboo topics in society?

It wasn't easy initially but I learnt it by watching many videos from international creators. It gets easy eventually after making more and more content and getting good feedback from the audience. A couple of my videos on sex education like 'Real sex vs porn' and 'Most asked questions about masturbation' went viral.

I also make sure that I just don't make informative content but focus on mixing it like you will find my sex education and woman hygiene videos in many formats like informative, character play, comedy video with trending audio, musical, and relatable videos. With sex education and woman hygiene, I include a lot of other topics like body positivity as well.

Since you educate people about sexual wellness and hygiene, do you end up facing backlash or trolling? If yes, how do you deal with it?

I do end up facing certain bad comments and DM's but it's not just because of the particular subject I create content on. You face trolls no matter in which niche you create content. I face backlash or trolling because I have switched multiple niches from fashion to beauty to travel and now I'm hooked on sex education and hygiene subject for the longest time as this has given me immense growth and confidence. I do switch niches even now like food or travel because that's something which is very close to my heart.

How do you research topics for your content, is it more based on real-life experiences?

I read a lot of articles and blogs and I'm also doing a course on sex education from Modern Sex Therapy Institute to get more insights on these topics.

I read a lot of books as well like 'What's happening to my body' by Lynda Madaras, and 'Sex puberty and all that stuff' by Jacqui Bailey. Also, I culminate more information from real-life experiences like I talk to my mom and aunt to gain knowledge on how is sexual life at their age and take many insights from them. I have friends who happen to be gynaecologists so I talk to them regarding certain topics to get more detailed information, sometimes I just scroll through my DMs to see what my audience is asking for and I shortlist a few topics and take weeks together to research and write down the pointers for my upcoming content.

How accepting was your audience of your content when you first started producing videos on taboo-ed issues?

Before I started posting videos about taboo-ed issues on Instagram, I started with TikTok as I wasn't sure how my Instagram audience would accept this. I chose TikTok to post videos on these topics as I thought everyone is new there and I'll have no one to judge me. When Tiktok was banned, I had built almost 3 lakh plus followers just by talking about sex education and hygiene. I was very upset when it was taken down because I thought I won't be able to create this kind of content anymore.

After a week, one of my friends just gave me the motivation to start talking about the same topics on Instagram and just see how the audience reacts as you always have an option of pausing it. I took that leap of faith and made my first 3-minute video on "How to measure your bra size" and uploaded it. To my surprise, the video garnered immense love and I was overwhelmed by the response.

Since then, there is no stopping and every day I research more topics under this subject or just come up with real-life experiences or go through my DMs as they are always filled with many questions which give me topic ideas to make content. Of course, there was hate as well but the percentage was very low and when you make content on any niche, love and hatred, both are guaranteed. So I just accepted both and made videos on sex education and woman's hygiene topics every day.