First Chaturbate Female Empowerment 'O' Award Recipient Named

LAS VEGAS—Candida Royalle, an award-winning adult actress and director who later turned her attention to the pleasure products segment of the industry, will be the first person honored with the Chaturbate Female Empowerment Award. Royalle, who died this past September, was selected for the inaugural award based on her pioneering work not only in adult movies, but also pleasure products. In 1999, Royalle partnered with Dutch industrial designer Jandirk Groet to create the ground-breaking line of Natural Contours vibrators—a design that had never before been seen in an adult novelty, and one which is widely imitated today. The award—created by prominent webcam site Chaturbate.com to recognize strong women who’ve made a major impact in various areas of the adult entertainment industry—will be presented during the “O” Awards, which take place in January during the AVN Novelty Expo in January. Candida Royalle, born Candice Vadala, was born on October 15, 1950, in Brooklyn, and spent most of her life and career in the New York City area, though she lived in San Francisco for a time in the 1970s. She entered the adult industry in 1975, starring in the VCX movie The Analist, and over the course of her nine years in front of the camera, acted in nearly 60 films before deciding that she belonged behind the camera—a move that solidified her place in the history of adult cinema. Royalle created Femme Productions, the first adult production studio to be owned solely by a woman and to produce films from a woman's perspective. When she ventured into the pleasure products side of the industry, Royalle and Groet worked to create items that were ergonomically designed for easier use. Royalle wanted to make sure the non-phallic collection of pleasure products from Natural Contours would fit the curves of a woman’s body. Considered revolutionary at the time, many pleasure product manufacturers have since followed her lead with items built to suit women’s bodies. Veronica Hart, a close personal friend of Royalle’s for years, will attend the ceremony to accept the award on her behalf. “She was such an amazing visionary and a very powerful, influential person,” Hart said of Royalle. “It's interesting how you know that your girlfriends are amazing, but it took her passing to fully realize all that she had accomplished.  She was phenomenal, and always cared about everything she did; I mean everything, from each bite of food, to caring for her animals, to working on political causes, to making a new genre of films …” For more information on the awards ceremony and the AVN Novelty Expo, visit NoveltyExpo.com. For more information on Chaturbate, visit Chaturbate.com.