I am raising money for Verity - the charity for people with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. A common symptom of PCOS can be extra body hair growth, so by growing my armpit hair I am showing solidarity with sufferers and also working towards having pride in my body hair, not shame. If I can get a few people to question beauty norms for women along the way, then all the better :)

From the official Armpits4August website:

"We believe the shame a lot of people feel about their body hair is a consequence of living in a society that regulates, controls and dictates that female-assigned bodies must conform to incredibly narrow beauty standards, and which upholds a rigid gender binary that deems body hair a ‘masculine’ trait. This creates a physically, socially, and mentally damaging image of what is ‘natural’ – an image that turns out to be no more than an idea. There is no standard, universal, typical – let alone ‘normal’ – pattern of body hair for women, men, or anyone else."