The Power To Move From Shame to Science: Why I Built a Women’s Health Company

Daniella Levy is CEO of Happy V.

By Daniella Levy

I occupy a space that, for years, has been considered taboo. For as long as I can remember, anything involving vaginal health came with this automatic sense of embarrassment, like you were doing something wrong by even bringing it up. Most of us learn that silence young, and it follows us well into adulthood.

I fell into that same pattern, dealing with bacterial vaginosis (BV) on and off for almost five years. It was exhausting. I tried everything. Antibiotics. Boric acid. Vitamin C. Even garlic. Some things helped for a minute, but nothing actually fixed the problem. But the symptoms were only half of it. The shame was what stuck with me. I kept thinking, "How is this so common, yet none of us feel like we can talk about it?"

The moment that changed everything came from an open conversation with my husband, Hans, where I asked, “What if we tried to make something that actually works?” In a moment of unfiltered frustration, I posted a TikTok outlining my no-holds-barred experience with BV. I didn’t think much about it after hitting ‘post,’ but what happened next truly opened my eyes. The post went viral overnight. The comments racked up. Women were commenting things like “I thought I was the only one” and “Makes me feel so seen to see women talk about this.” 

That’s when Happy V was born, a company focused on creating science-backed supplements for vaginal and hormonal health, made with ingredients at doses that actually match research, not marketing trends. Running a women’s health company has forced me to shift my own mindset. I’ve stopped hiding the parts of my story I once found embarrassing. If speaking openly helps one woman feel less alone than I did, then this work is worth every bit of it.

Daniella Levy is CEO of Happy V. https://www.facebook.com/myhappyv https://www.instagram.com/myhappyv/ ; https://www.linkedin.com/company/happy-v/ ; https://happyv.com/