Nearly two years ago, Tina Gong was at a loss. She'd just spent ages designing HappyPlaytime, an app that, complete with an adorable cartoon vulva character, aimed to teach women how to masturbate.
However, despite a real push, Apple didn't want to house the app in the App Store, they said that the app included 'erotic and mature themes that are not appropriate for the App Store.' This is despite the App Store currently housing apps like the charming 'Rack Stare' (stare at a girl's breasts, if she notices you lose) and 'Tickle Her' (tickle the 'hot brunette' lying scantily clad on the bed until she giggles).
Anyways. Long story short, Happy PlayTime still lives on online (seriously go check it out it's great) but never found it's way onto the App Store. So, Tina turned her attention to a new project that's just launched; Golden Thread Tarot, an app that teaches you how to read tarot cards.
'I always had an interest in it.' Says Tina when we ask her why she settled on a tarot card app. 'One one defining philosophy I found was unrelenting hope - the belief that the human spirit can conquer all. And, at that time, it was something that I really needed.'
At the time she was working at a tech start up and started giving readings to her co-workers. 'People were suprisingly interested.' She says. 'But I found myself trying to explain the same things again and again - that it was not about telling your future, it was about creating it, that there was nothing to fear from it, that I wasn't bewitching them etc. And I felt that there was a much bigger potential for tarot to be used differently.'
The app helps users learn how to use tarot. It has digital lessons, can do readings both digitally and with an IRL card deck, it has a 'card of the day' option and learns about a user and their readings over time to help them figure stuff out better for themselves. 'I believe in the overall potential of tarot to be a self-awareness tool,' Says Tina. 'Anybody that is interested in spirituality and self-understanding could potentially find a lot of meaning behind it.'
Tina's got a background in tech but she says that shouldn't stop girls with app ideas who aren't as clued up from having a go at making their own. 'I know enough about front-end code to be able to work it on my own,' She says. 'There are a lot of front-end frameworks you can used out there though. I chose to work with a framework called Ionic. I work in tech so I had a lot of friends to ask if I got stuck but something like Stack Overflow or the Ionic forums would work equally well. Also, I just Googled a ton of things!'
So far, the app's doing well. 'We've got such great reviews,' Tina says. 'And I'm really happy about it. It seems to be doing its' job in helping people understand that tarot is more than just part of a fortune-tellers' bag of tricks.' Also, most importantly, Apple seem OK with it, 'Yes, I was nervous about submitting to Apple again,' Tina laughs. 'But luckily they've be quite fine this time!'
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.