Scarlett Hopper, 28, is a romance author who previously worked as a nanny to support her writing career when she realised a massive “gap in the market” in Sydney.

In September last year, she opened Romancing the Novel, a bookstore in Paddington, Sydney’s eastern suburbs that sells only romance books.

That might sound like an incredibly niche business idea, but Ms. Hopper just knew there was a market.

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The 28-year-old has been involved in the romance reading community since her early twenties and has been reading romance since she was 15, but she was noticing a huge shift online.

While the romance genre has always been popular among readers, the “stigma” that used to generate a cultural eye-roll has been disappearing.

“The last five years, there’s been an absolute resurgence. I don’t even know if the right word is resurgence because it has always been popular, but I think it is related to TikTok, as crazy as that sounds,” she told news.com.au.

“The stigma is melting away and people just don’t care anymore.”

Ms Hopper said women are just more comfortable admitting they’re reading books with “filthy sex scenes” and aren’t prepared to apologise for it.

The cultural shift has been a joyful time for Ms Hopper, not just as an author who writes smutty scenes, although according to her, they aren’t that “spicy”, but because she loves seeing women being able to openly share and talk about the romance.

When she published her first romance book, Brief Encounters, she was in her early twenties. It wasn’t that she felt “embarrassed,” but she was quickly exhausted by how people minimised her book.

“I just used to not tell people what I did because I didn’t have the energy. People would be like, ‘You write porn,” she explained.

“I just didn’t want to tell people because there was so much Judgement and I didn’t want to get into it.”

Ms Hopper also said she wasn’t as confident as she is now, and in retrospect, she’s frustrated with herself for not recognising what an accomplishment it was to become an author so young.

“Women are just always made to feel like they’re ashamed and aren’t taught to hype themselves,” she said.

So opening a romance book store that has become a “safe place” for women to indulge in romance and talk about smut has been nothing short of joyful.

Ms Hopper said she had the idea in her head for years, but she lacked faith in herself. Last year, she just decided to go for it.

It wasn’t an easy road.

“I chased the real estate agent for months because they didn’t want to give it to me because they didn’t think it was going to work,” she said.

“I also picked an expensive area, and with the bond, all of that before opening, it was $80,000.”

Ms Hopper said she was “sh***ing herself” and terrified she was going to ruin her “credit score if failed”.

“If it fails, I’ve f**ked my credit card, and I’d have a business loan I wouldn’t be able to pay back.”

Ms Hopper knew it was going to work.

“Romance readers they show up!” She said.

In fact, at times, that belief kept her going. It was easy to doubt herself but harder to be critical of a community she loved.

She was incredibly nervous when she finally got to the point where she could open the shops. She did a few posts on Instagram and a couple of TikToks, but she’s not an influencer with an in-built following, so it was a whole new territory.

“I was getting the store ready, and I opened the door. There’s a line out the street,” she said.

“I remember thinking taking this in because sh**t is about to get real.”

Things have gotten very real in a really positive way. She’s made amazing friends, hired an employee, and created a profitable business.

“I’m so lucky. It would be nothing without romance readers. Even before I opened, when I told them, people were like, ‘what?’ I could just tell people were confused,” she admitted.

So seeing the success has been affirming, “it just makes me so happy,” she said.