Anna Lee on Tracking Intimacy, Addressing Gaps in Sex Research, and Why Knowledge is Pleasure

Interview by Mirae Lee
​Videos by Anna Lee

What does it mean to track your orgasm? Most of us are familiar with vibrators, but what about tracking our intimate moments? It’s a concept many of us might not have considered. When we first heard about Lioness, the idea of a smart vibrator left us curious yet intrigued. Then we came across their Pleasure Wrapped post. The line graphs, bar charts, hours, and percentages drew us into the fascinating world of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted, data-tracking sex tech.

​Anna Lee, the co-founder and engineer behind Lioness, shares insights into the world of sex tech and why it's important to track our intimate data.
1. Let’s start with the basics. What is a smart vibrator? What is orgasm data?​
2. In your interviews and in your bio, you’ve mentioned “knowledge is pleasure.” How does this idea apply to our sexual health?​
3. What are some ways that our intimate data are stored and protected in Lioness?​
4. Your work also revolves around sex education and outreach as you’ve been sharing information and advice through social media. At Lioness, your team has started a Sex Research Platform that invites users to "participate in studies from the comfort of your home" and researchers to "incorporate large scale, real world, physiological and behavioral sex data". What has been your personal and your team’s learning process on sex (e.g. sexual health, pleasure, orgasm)? What is the gap you’re seeing within sex research, and how is Lioness aiming to fill that gap?​
5. Just curious about the research behind bringing Lioness to life! You’ve mentioned there’s a lack of research and data around female sexual function. How did you and your team navigate this challenge during the development of the vibrator? Was user feedback a primary source of insight?
6. Lastly, what are your hopes for the future of Lioness and sex tech at large?
Anna Lee is the co-founder and engineer behind Lioness, the world’s first and only smart vibrator that gives you biofeedback orgasm data to help you learn more about your body. Anna was previously a mechanical engineer at Amazon and was most recently named one of Newsweek’s 10 Innovators Disrupting Healthcare and Forbes 30 Under 30. Anna is also a prominent creator on TikTok with over 400,000 followers creating fun experiments to demystify sex.​ | IG @annaisaverage, TikTok @annatheaverage