The Ugly Truth of Acne Representation | Video Essay
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 31. 05. 2022
- Why do we never see acne in movies and TV - or even pimple product ads?
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Why do we never see acne in movies and TV - or even pimple product ads?And what are the implication of that for people's mental health and self image? Let's dig into it!
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As someone with multiple compounding skin issues including cystic acne, keloids, warts and moles I have been accutely aware since I have been young about the lack of skin diversity in the media.
Kind of true for me, too. I never had acne, but a skin disease since I was a small child (in varying degrees). And I always found it unrealistic how seemingly perfect the skin of everyone on TV was - and most people in real life.
I haven't had cystic acne, or warts. I've had acne since I was 10, I'm 60 now and I still get acne. I have eczema and psoriasis. I've had people think they were entitled to mention my scaly patches.
I mean, yeah. Conventional beauty will always include clear, healthy looking skin. Thatâs the way itâs always been. đ€·đœââïž
@@dewilew2137 I know keloids are not, and will never be conventionally beautiful, however it would be nice if people didnt think I am diseased when I take off my shirt...
TV people are so perfect. It's the worst in the US imo. I never watch historical movies/shows that come from the US unless they take place at least after WW2. The perfect, glowing skin (plus makeup the way it has not been done until recently, with contouring and all) and perfect, blindingly white teeth of the actors just prevent the suspension of belief required. I know that historical portrayals outside the US aren't spot on either, but at least you get a few people that aren't basically perfect.
It's kinda ridiculous how none of the "popular kids" in teen shows have acne, since a large majority of the "popular kids" I knew growing up had moderate to severe acne. It seems like the only people who don't judge teens for their acne are other teens since almost all of us have it. It's weird seeing kids get teased for it in shows and movies, since that's literally every teen ever. Why are they seen as so weird if they just look like an average teenager. It's like teasing a middle schooler for having braces nowadays.
No cause literally. I had social anxiety and depression cause of my acne in high school, but it wasnât cause anyone said anything about in school, but because I believed they would, but the reality was that no one gave a fack
@Anna how is it a ârare sicknessâ? you get acne when growing up bc of hormones đ€Ą
but teens do bully the ones who have severe acne? yes everyone gets the annual pimples but cystic acne is a whole other level and believe me, kids are extremely cruel to those who have it. i was mercilessly bullied for my acne troughout middle school, alienated from my classmates so much that seven years later i'm still not healed from it. and i know many others who went trought the same so please don't say it only happens in movies bc that's just not true
I recently saw the documentary "Born Rich" about the teenaged children of some of the richest families in America and Europe. Nearly all of them had moderate or severe acne. Definitely not rare.
In young royals a lot of the characters had acne, both the popular kids and not so popular ones, it was really refreshing
My favorite acne story: my best friend who has a perfect complexion complaining to me about that one pimple she had on her chin, how disgusting it was. I had tears in my eyes because my entire face was covered in pimples. I just thought ,if she thinks that one pimple is so disgusting and ugly what must she, my best friend, think about my face?â
One zit is a tragedy, million zits is just statistics ;) Friends probably don't give a f. We are always more strict towards ourselves. My daughter always complains and makes a big deal about her mild barely visible teen acne and how she needs to cover it; her friend has some severe condition, my daughter sees it but it's not a big deal to her.
Something similar happened to me. I was walking with a friend, and she commented on her face claimed she had âa lot of acneâ I look over, not a single blackhead, whitehead, or red spot at all. Me on the other hand, a face riddled with acne of all type
When a friend goes to you about a flaw they see within themselves, it is not about you. Body dysphoria is a bitch that causes people to hyper fixate on their issues to an unhealthy degree, when there might not even be anything there. Your friend doesnt see your pimples, she sees her own. And its frankly narcistic that you put down her worries and think its about you just because you think yours is "worse".
How about talking it over with your "best" friend as friends do instead of bitching about it online to a bunch of strangers because youre too self conscious to think that maybe it is not about you for once
I can guarantee you that as someone with perfect skin now who has called off work if i get one zit, i am still attracted to people with acne, like it doesnt bother me about someone else, it bothers me about me because i already hate myself
As someone who has insecurities about certain parts of my body I can promise you now, the things I hate about myself, are things I don't even notice in others
honestly every time i see a character with acne, i get dumb emotional. iâve always struggled with it and am still *extremely* self-conscious about my skin but with the aid of keke palmer and the occasional show, iâve been able to - slowly - grow more comfortable with my appearance. thank you for covering this!
I honestly feel the same. I was one of the first kids to get acne and I was still in elementary school. I remember reading a book called The Impossible Knife of Memory, the main character's best friend has acne and it is simply treated as another physical trait of hers, not good or bad. Just, part of her. Having acne not be demonized and simply letting the girl exist on the page and have a normal life felt so refreshing.
Awk, thats kind of sad to hear. If you don't mind me saying, you're legitimately "Parful-lukkin'" as we say over here. The first time I saw you in one of your own videos i think I did an actual double take đ, like in one of them old cartoons :) That said as a fellow skin condition sufferer, I know the effect that stuff has on me and I get it, and can relate tbh, but damn.
covering and uncovering this at the same time! lol
(i mean, uncovering as revealing, as 'aletheia' jeje)
Same, Iâm 23 and still struggling with acne
crazy
Acne is so devastating to your mental health, which is something that people who have never had chronic acne for 5, 10, 15+ years can never understand. When I was at my worst, I refused to leave the house and was utterly miserable and in physical pain. It seems so superficial but really wears you down after years of battling it.
My acne statrted when I was in middle school so it's been about eight years that I have struggled with it. Middle and High school were the toughest years because it was cystic and it didn't help with the name calling that I would get or even the "can I pop your pimple" "have you tried that" "this worked for me" "just wash your face" comments. I don't have bad blemishes anymore, only a few breakouts here and there but the emotional and mental wounds that it left me still feel fresh.
yeah, people who haven't struggled with acne don't really understand the many layers of the matter... and how socially tiring it is! when in all the truth it shouldn't be so upsetting. nobody should care or pay atention to it. only in an emphatic way when inflamed skin hurts...
I battled acme for years before I eventually got diagnosed with Hyperthyroidism, once I got my thyroid treated, my acne cleared up!
Same
I love the fact that Edvin's acne (and of other actors) wasn't covered up for Young Royals. I don't even have acne other than the ocasional pimple, but it made me SO happy to see a bunch of teenagers just being teenagers.
I am so glad i wasn't the only one to realise that. It made me want to see the show
I liked that they were often framed like stupid, petty teenagers - who didnât properly consider the consequences of their actions
It honestly was a great show?!
I watched it on a totally random whim and then then I binged it obsessively for a week đ
iâm late to this video but replying anyway. when watching YR, as a scandinavian person myself, i didnât even notice until people started pointing it out. itâs very common in our media to have actors with all sorts of skin, and as someone who only struggled with their skin during puberty, it isnât like,, something i look for ? or notice, i guess. but seeing the reactions, especially from people who are used to majority US media, it was so heartwarming. and i really hope netflix are taking note of the positive reactions to the natural skin in YR.
When I was a child I thought acne was really beautiful, and I couldnât wait to become a teenager and get acne myself. I think itâs mostly because my best friendâs older sister had quite a lot of acne, and she was my biggest role model growing up. I thought she was the most beautiful person ever, and I wanted to be just like her when I grew up.
aww
Thatâs so cute đ„°
That's really wholesome
I think this is a brilliant example that beauty standards are not nature given, but something we're taught. Children hold the capacity to find beauty in most things and we go and spoil it.
I thought that too as a kid! Then I grew up, got acne, and got really insecure ab my skin
It's wild how many of us are taught that acne is only a teenage thing when it really doesn't ever stop occurring. As an adult with acne, I struggle with picking at my face because in my mind, a bloody wound is better than a break out
I'm 18 and I still have acne going on for me. I pick at my face for a similar reason ngl, but some of it is mostly subconscious and or a nervous tick at times. It's a bit frustrating since I know it's best to just leave it alone.
@@bobtheball5384 18 with acne isn't that weird
32 here, still get acne and backne. It's not the most fun but I know lots of adults with acne.
Very normal âșïž
@@magk2524 having acne at any age isnât weird
Dermatillomania. Itâs a BFRB (body focused repetitive behavior) like trichotillomania.
Not only do I get almost obsessive about âeradicatingâ every blemish I see or feel. But I have autism/adhd and unfortunately picking at my face is one of my stims. So I do it a lot both consciously and subconsciously.
Just now realizing (cause of this video) how messed up it is that so much of media geared towards teens treats acne as something to be disgusted by and ashamed of especially since it's so common for teens to have? Like, they already have to deal with puberty, they really don't need yet more shame for their bodies
honestly puberty in general is used like this and it sucks. acne, voice cracking, hair growth, breast growth, libido, sweat, menstruation and even just the concept of puberty are treated like gross punchlines that stop existing after the joke is delivered. but god forbid media teaches kids that those things are normal and how to handle them!
I also had that realization! that basically everything that teens go through involving their body, skin, voice etc. is seen as a joke, disgusting or if itâs not âperfectâ itâs something they get bullied over especially in shows FOR those same kids/teens.
@@venusnympha And it's not even something they can stop. They can't do anything about it.
its gross how many shows, aimed towards children and teens, demonize normal traits and shame their demographic for having it. the biggest ones i can think of are acne and fat, where both are used to portray a person as ugly, mean and unhygienic.
It's not something to be ashamed of. It's just not attractive. A lot of teens are obsessed with being attractive. It's not the media it's just us.
Why are you speaking to me personally. I felt like this channel was specifically for me when you made the Ace representation videos but now you are talking about acne too?? Im so thankful for this seriously.
ac(n)e
Ditto
Lol same
Literally I misread the title and thought it was another ace vid lolol
Haha same! For this video and the ace one
My biggest annoyance with having acne is when random people try to âhelpâ you with random advice⊠a customer once came up to me at work and randomly started telling me what he thinks I should try to get rid of it and it felt really embarrassing (especially because my face was clearer than it usually is at the time)
It was totally unprompted too, like he just walked over to me while I was stocking the shelf and just started talking about my acne
Or even worse they just tell you to wash your face or drink water đđ
OMG THIS! I will never forget working retail and how customers would bring it upon themselves to suggest their "magic acne cure" like they were doing me a favour. Like, thank you for reminding me about my pain I was able to momentarily forget while stocking this shelf. Like, thank you so much! I definitely haven't tried everything possible already, but sure, your unsolicited advice will be the thing that changes my life forever.
I like to watch cartoons to de-stress sometimes and I recently got surprised by a refreshingly good depiction of acne in a show called "The Owl House". One of the main characters has two older siblings that are seen by everyone as cool and flawless, and who both care a lot about their appearances. And the main theme in this episode is how those 3 kids' parents are overly controlling and put unhealthy expectations on them, and how the kids break away from that. It's a minor part of the story, but at one point, the cool oldest sister has to take off her makeup (or, magical equivalent of makeup) and she's got visible acne spread across her face. No characters comment on it, and she doesn't even seem embarassed by it (likely due to being far away from her parents and classmates) but it's noticeable to the audience. But the part that I really loved was how the narrative didn't treat this reveal as "look, she was secretly ugly all along! She's finally getting knocked off her high horse!" Instead, it treats the reveal like "yeah, she looks like a normal 16 year old girl. It's unfortunate that she felt pressured to hide her natural skin."
I know! If anything I was simping for emira with her hair down and with her actual face showing
Iâm too gay for this đ
I also noticed a really great example in Amphibia, where in one episode Anne has a breakout (I think for the first time but idr) and she starts freaking out about it, and the Plantars all react confused as to why she's stressed out, and later the town of Wartwood sees her acne and finds them beautiful and give her respect that she hasn't had from the town before, since having cherry colored bumps in an amphibious society would be seen as a beautiful, rare quality. She immediately gets over her embarrassment due to their reaction and starts trying to grow her acne by spreading butter all over her face in order to get more of the special treatment from the town. I think it's a really good example of how many things that are seen as "ugly" or "embarrassing" are just societal expectations.
Mhm! I was gonna comment about Emira, her acne is just seen as a relatively normal thing đ though she isnt a main character noone looks down upon her for her acne
I preferred their designs after they stopped using illusions to change their appearance, because they looked like normal kids.
Itâs frustrating when everyone tries to âhelp youâ fix your acne. A year ago I went to visit relatives that i havenât seen in like 7 or 8 years and CONSTANTLY people would try to âhelpâ my acne and say things how âI would be so much prettier without itâ and would get mad at me for me not wanting to hear them out on suggestions. Like Iâm sorry that I donât want to hear you suggest putting baking soda on my face to remove my pimples because that works for you. Whats worse is that I want to become a dermatologist and so whenever I tell my relatives that they give me a quizzical look as though I shouldnât be one because I donât have perfect skin even though it shouldnât matter. I love the science and biochemistry of it all and Iâm tired that they would get upset with me for following my dermatologists recommendations at the time because they werenât giving âinstantâ results. Itâs been a year since I visited them and itâs gotten significantly better since then, not perfect but Iâm trying to make peace with the fact that my skin isnât going to be this smooth filtered goddess skin and thatâs totally ok lol. Baby steps
Youâd probably become a better dermatologist than someone whoâs never had acne before because you understand what itâs like and be more empathetic to your patients.
What the , why cant you be a dermazolist, if you ver likely are familiar with the stuff of skill issues, a lot pychologit become that becaue they ha experience, why would it be diferent there. I anything you have jut more experience to draw from.
I mean if thats a positive i guess , its jut outragous that dermatolists had to have perfect kin all therir life and not like, maybe had experience and know better because. I dont know yoiu, just it should be common ense that its not a disqualifyer, at all...
Ok i dont kno anything , just wtf oh you deal with acne, you cant learn to a doctor with skin isues ?! What?!
GL there. And if its , may opateients trut you more if yolu are not "perfect " too?! I jut dont see downsides as dermalogist.
@@marocat4749 Plenty of dermatologists and people working in skincare that don't have perfect skin. Same with the prevalence of healthy role-model doctors. I've seen it first hand. No one is perfect. Even the most perfect looking person has their flaws - and there are plenty of examples of so-called perfect looking people who have either dealt with serious personal battles or on the other end of the spectrum have severe character flaws which can tarnish their reputation and social inclusion.
The difference _is_ experience. The best people in any industry are those who have intimate personal experience with the subject at hand and being familiar with the multi-faceted approach required when it comes to acne as a result of social considerations manifested by modern media standards. This is not to say that there aren't people who have gotten into the skincare industry because they have been witness to their sibling or someone close to them experiencing the grief that skin problems can cause but when you've been through something yourself it and lived it you have a much closer understanding of a topic than simply reading about it in a book or seeing an article on a website about it (or yt video)...
It took me a long time to realize personally that what is most important in employment is to have your heart in it. Passion and being passionate about something can come from many places but most often it comes from a place of experience. The need to transmute frustration and reinput back into society what you felt you were deprived of. The people that do this are often the most profoundly effective and competent in their careers because their passion and wisdom through experience drives them rather than just a paycheck.
I have the same thing and I also want to be a derm specifically because I have been treated so shitty by dermatologists. We need people who went through it tp help!
my aunt gave me some unsolicited face cream because my face "looks horrible". I hadn't gone out for a long time because of the global panda, and when i did go out, my acne was all anyone would talk about. "oh my god your skin looks horrible what happened??" yeah Sarah I got breakouts because I'm allergic to your rude ass personality.
I had severe, severe painful acne, and I'm still dealing with the feelings around it, particularly when it is- as noted SEVERELY PAINFUL. NO ONE talks about that. I've had the days of headaches from acne, not being able to open my mouth. I have never, ever heard someone else talk about it in media, or even in treatment guidelines.
It's this assumption that "well, so what if it's painful? It's ugly, address that first." It made my anxiety so much worse, because then people may think I'm just "Sulking because have acne" not that I'm not thrilled to be out because I'm in excruciating pain. I'm not being "precious" or "vain."
The idea that if I just "washed up" or "drank more water" I'd be fine is just as upsetting as it is insulting, particularly in that context. Why would I voluntarily put myself through that pain if just drinking more water fixed it?
But no one knows that hasn't suffered from it, because the messaging is on how offensive it looks to other people.
It was just... so nice to be seen. Particularly as a 30+ adult with acne.
+
Honestly after a point, I didnât even care how it looked, I just wanted to stop having painful sores all over my face!! I would wake up and look in the mirror and just know âah, thatâs going to hurt for the next 3-5 days, great. Cool.â
Dude, people have no idea, sometimes I get some pimples that are so big and painful that I have to take painkillers to help me keep going with my day. But when I told my mom, she laughed, saying I was exaggerating, even if she herself had really bad acne when she was young.
The way people treat it as something not painful and controllable it's so weird and sometimes so cruel!
The photo she posted with cystic acne in the corner of her eye. All I could think was how painful that must have been! For days! Iâve had styes before, who hasnât, but acne on your eyelid is a whole different level of discomfort.
what does your diet consist of?
as someone who has had acne since i was like 8, seeing the one-off âoh no i have A SINGLE PIMPLE!!! WHAT WILL I DO???!?â episodes of tv shows always made me feel bad. if having one pimple for like a week was devastating, where does that leave people like me who have had it consistently for upwards of 8 years? thank you for covering this topic!
"you'd be so pretty without all that acne" - a doctor I visited for a routine checkup
(context: she was trying to convince me to start Accutane, which I did eventually do but at this time I was scared of the potential side effects and health risks)
There's something called Differin, I've heard it can work wonders for acne
thats so messed up that a doctor thinks that's an appropriate comment to make
Yeah that was wrong for her to say that, and accutane is a big decision
@@carlycarmine3858 nobody asked you. stop.
@@AA-cf4es I was just trying to help
I truly do not understand and never did understand why anyone thinks acne is only ever a hygiene issue
My mum drilled it into my brain haha
Miseducation I guess. If you never hear otherwise many people will believe it. Especially since âhygieneâ is vague enough to explain away when it shows not to be true.
My dad would always say that I can't be touching myself and stuff, and I would try to tell him, it's only genetics.
Because teens tend to get it the worst, and their poor bodies often overproduce oil, which makes for an oily, dirty look, leading to more scrubbing, and that, ironically, makes it worse.
I think people don't really care what causes it, they just like blaming/shaming people. And Western society is for some reason rather obsessed with shaming people over hygiene, there's a bunch of weird morality attached to it. At least in the U.S. don't know about Britain or Canada...
I have both acne and a combo of skin picking+eczema that has left my arms covered in marks and scars. My mom is 60 and *still* has acne. Skin conditions as a whole are underrepresented, especially as a chronic thing
When I was a teenager my mom would scold me so badly for picking at my skin, more than she did for almost anything else. Almost 15 years later I still vividly remember her usual phrasing; she used to say that I was "destroying my face" and that I would regret it forever when I was left with acne scars. I know that it was her way of looking out for me, but it did a lot more harm than good. It didn't stop me from doing it since it was a way of coping with anxiety. But more importantly, it led to deep-seated feelings of shame, and so many years later, I'm still reminded of those hurtful words when I look in the mirror. It's absurd to yell at someone who is doing no harm, or someone who is self-harming. I remember telling her that I was trying hard to stop, and described the feelings in a way that made it clear that it was pathological. What I needed was therapy, not punishment.
my upper arms have tons of scars from picking. i never wear anything that shows it anymore. honestly the impact of dealing w skin issues isn't talked about as it should be and it sucks
Yes same. I have scars all over my face from picking with dry skin. Makeup always seems like a chore everyday and going out feels very uncomfortable. It makes it hard looking at media when idk how to heal..
I personally have quite clear skin, but a skin picking disorder, and what that basically results in is me slowly gaining scars/darkened spots from where I continuously picked dry skin or the occasional spot. Thatâs personally bad for me as it is, as the moment I get a dry skin patch or the occasional pimple I know it will just add to my permanent collection of scars. Canât imagine how difficult it must be to have acne on top of skin picking AND eczema; would be a nightmare for me. Youâre so brave for dealing with that
I remember a friend in our teen years fussing over a single zit before a social outing. Standing next to her with a face literally covered by painful pimples, cysts and open wounds, I was like, âWhy are you freaking out? Look at me!â And her reply was basically, âBut that's just your face, it's not noticeable anymoreâ.
Your friend sounds like a cartoon character. She'd be hilarious.
i still have the same issue with friends i feel bad since i know it isnt theyre fault and theyre suffering too but id kill to have skin as clears as theyrs
Having to wear a mask because of covid was one of the things I loved cause I could cover my acne with my hair and my mask.
It's gotten to the point where I don't think I'll be able to go out without a mask- Causs I've seen the difference I the way people treat me.
You can still wear your mask and pretend you doing it for covid reasons.
Same. I don't even care if there is no need to wear a mask outside anymore now, I will still wear it.
I don't like wearing makeup in fear of making the acne worse.
So, wearing masks was/is kind of a blessing in disguise.
As a person with overbite yes! It's a shame that nowadays folks aren't socially allowed to wear masks anymore because pandemic died down. Not only that as a neurodivergent person I was relived that I do not have to be so controlling of my facial expressions.
@@aleksythehorse5984 Exactly!! not having to put on emotion or worrying if my face is steched wired was a haven for me.
@@aleksythehorse5984
If you want to do it just do it đ
Wear those masks yâall, I still do every now and then when it feels overwhelming to have to smile at people
You could do a similarly fascinating episode about teeth. Just like your skin, your teeth also must be perfect if you want to participate in media and not be bullied and/or considered laughing stock.
And the same moralistic hygiene stuff, and in societies that don't offer free medical or dental care (stupid even if they do tho)
I was just about to comment this! I think itâd be nice if in cartoon shows it was more common for people to have slightly yellow-ish teeth, and not like they just got veneers
For real, I've had crooked teeth since childhood and I hate it when commercials for teeth straighteners advertise it as "bringing back your smile" đ
Luckily I live in a country with a strong NHS, because we have quite weak teeth in the family. I'm being checked every 8 months by a dentist, and I brush my teeth 3/4 times a day, I got special care every 3 years to make them stronger, but they're very yellow. Nothing I can do about that (as whitening is super weakening). And it is quite hard for someone so obsessed with buccal hygiene to be the representation of "gross/unhealthy/unclean" teeth.
And how characters with braces are always shown as unattractive and uncool, I know popular kids with braces, and braces have never affected how attractive I find someone.
More and more teen dramas are filled with casts of people who look like,, people. When i watched young royals i was like,, finally teens that looks like teens.
I feel like a lot of the problems with aged up, airbrushed actors playing teen roles are very America specific. For the most part it's uncommon in shows filmed and set outside of America, that's not to say it doesn't exist it's just not the standard.
And in general American TV doesn't allow unattractive people very often. There just aren't very many normal looking people.
â@@alexjames7144 It's not uncommon for American media to cast average or even conventionally attractive people to play 'ugly' characters, in contrast with the supermodels they cast in main roles. The amount of times I've seen a woman of totally healthy weight (even quite slim) cast as the 'fat' character (with her fatness being shown as a character flaw), or the guy with a strong jaw and fit body but slightly asymmetrical features cast as the 'ugly' character. Any time a character actually looks significant different or has a skin condition they're literally a 'hideously deformed' villain (whose villainy is often rooted in shame about their looks) or else appear in a one-off 'special episode' so the main character can pity them and learn a lesson. It can't be overstated what kind of effect this has on the unconscious biases of people who grow up watching this stuff - both in their judgements of others and themselves. I'm really glad things seem to be changing a little over time, but progress is slow!
ik i was so happy when I started watching the show to see normal looking actors with skin issues - people who I could picture as a level students at my school
Iâm 31 and still suffering acne to this day. And itâs pretty devastating. Itâs bad enough when youâre in teens and early 20s but youâre even more heavily judged if youâre over 25 with more than the bi yearly pimple.
The fact that this is the first piece of media Iâve seen attempting to de stigmatize acne and âimperfect skinâ is kinda depressing, Iâm 20 and have had acne since I was 12, Iâve tried many different methods too try and decrease itâs affects but no matter him much money I throw at the problem it has persisted, and I always felt kinda annoyed when people in my life or in shows would have meltdowns about one zit or pimple, so this was nice , thanks
my acne is mostly based on hormones and stress (2020 left some serious scars on my face), things people casually say about acne makes my skin crawl. there's a couple youtubers I follow who frequently show their skin without makeup and often without even addressing it, just normalizing it and I'm here for it
Yeah my acne is entirely hormonal, I only get bad acne around my period and any other acne before I assume is from stress, admittedly I don't get really bad acne but still I don't understand why people think it has to do with hygiene.
yeah, i had a really bad time with my exzema during covid with stress too, i hope that there's more representation over the years, because it makes me feel so bad sometimes, but I just have to accept my skin isn't going to be the smooth skin that I want it to be
If I remember correctly, any sort of âskin disease,â acne included, was considered a moral/internal failing going back to the Ancient Greece. So itâs not surprising that our society still hold that belief to be true, to a degree.
Pretty based ngl
@@sergeant_chris6209 cringe
Honestly I'm not suprised. If it's something that helped us survive till today then it makes sense that it would still be there. It makes no sense today, rendering it as a functionless belief.
In all fairness, "skin diseases" at that time (or more "diseases affecting the skin"), were, or caused by "lifestyle" (syphilis) or were usually "limited" to poor people (smallpox, leprosy) and you clearly didn't want to go around anyone who was displaying skin scarred that way. I'm not sure "basic acne" was triggering anyone (and clearly not as much as it does today).
So society retained this ancient stigma of pimples from Greece but not the normalisation of homosexuality? big cringe
Whenever Disney shows would have âthat one episodeâ where a main character gets 1 pimple and acts like itâs the end of the world, Iâd always laugh at how dramatic they were with my zit covered face.
Edit: I wrote this before I got to the part of the video where those episodes were mentioned.
righttt literally every show had that 1 stupid ep
honestly though looking back at it was so ridiculous, theyâd act they failed a class đ
I hit puberty really early, and so I had persistent acne through elementary and middle school. For every birthday, Christmas, etc, from the age of 9 my grandmother would send me acne products as my present. It devastated me.
omg i also had acne when i was like 9/10 and i hated when people tried to help me improve my routine or even suggest that I wasn't hygienic when i was literally obsessed with cleaning my skin to try and feel less gross :(
My grandparents, to this day, try to get me to do all kinds of treatments. "We will pay for it, don't worry!" they say, while they barely get by on their retirement money. As if my acne was so world-ending, devastating and horrible to look at, that taking out a loan would be a good solution, lmao.
When I watched the original SKAM I was shocked that a lot of actors had acne (although not when acne is really bad). And i think it wasnât shown as something horrid. The pimples were just.. there.
It was soooo refreshing.
(I got acne when I was 30 bc of one of my antidepressants. Just FYI for those people who wonder what reasons there can be for acne.)
Skam did everything right when it comes to realistic high school representation. That show is awesome
Recently I also watched a show where oneâŠ(a few actually)⊠of the characters had acne and I was just thinking about the same issue this video addressesđI was so glad they werenât making acne a âbig badâ đIâm so glad I found her channel â€ïž
yess, i'm so glad to see other people commenting on skam's representation, it's definitely some of the best i've ever seen and the acne representation in particular was so refreshing to see
I honestly think this is a cultural difference and acne is considered normal in Scandinavia. This video and these comments are a bit surprising to me since Iâve never thought twice about acne or seeing acne on screen.
so true- all the acne stickers ads made me feel weird for some reason and I realize it's the clear perfect skin
like showing already shaved legs in razor ads
I have one positive example. In Seanan McGuire's October Daye series, there's a recurring character with acne scars. She's an immortal sea witch who can change her shape to be whatever she wants. And she chooses to show herself as a young woman with acne scars. It made me so happy to see that.
I think a problem people donât discuss is that for people like me who have extremely sensitive skin, acne treatments are genuinely very painful causing an intense burning sensation on the skin. This is worse when you have adults who donât instruct you how to properly use these products (I thought you left stridex pads directly on your face) and then proceed to act like your delusional for experiencing pain which as a note no one is ever delusional for feeling pain. Which is a wider problem for me as a boy who has very low pain threshold and tolerance, everything hurts and no one believes me adding emotional pain to physical pain.
Iâm 42 and had acne since I was 9. I wore tonnes of makeup as a teen and into my 20s. In the last decade Iâve stopped entirely. I stand in front of teens, teaching them with my acne on display and hope that me being confident to embrace my face helps the kids who are dealing with it.
yeah, I'm 30 and accepting that I will always have acne - never thought I'd get to this point but it's incredibly freeing to accept myself as I am!! no longer spending insane amounts of money trying to find a 'cure,' and just living my life
Iâve had acne since I was 9 as well! I was one of the only kids breaking out that young, and even my identical twin sister didn't have acne like I did. When I was 12, I began wearing makeup to cover my acne because I felt lost about how to âfixâ it. I felt uncomfortable wearing tank tops and other clothing that showed my chest, shoulders, and back because I was constantly breaking out. I finally stopped wearing a a full face of makeup every day a few months before I turned 15 because I realized I had a rather warped perception of my face and skin due to wearing makeup. Now, Iâm currently 23, and I still persistently break out, but I just wash my face and then go in my merry way. Iâm no longer consumed with fear that people can tell Iâm breaking out.
I'm almost 18, I've also had acne since I was 9 or 10
It feels especially isolating when even in a large enough city, all the other kids didn't have acne until highschool. I haven't actually heard of another person having acne at that age, tho I have no reason to think I'm the only one
@@hunternocedaclawthorn I've had acne since 10, I'm 31 now and it improved greatly with age, in my late 20s in particular. I have spots on my face, arms, back and sometimes thighs. I have a lot of scarring on my back, and it increases with stress and hormone level changes. I'm much more comfortable in my body now than I used to be, and I think that's mostly to do with age!
I had a teacher that had visible scarring from acne. Also was very tall and skinny like I was. It was an inexplicable good feeling to look at her, because I didn't see anything wrong with her, and she had my features. I think she also had a bigger nose but I'm not sure it was her. It helped with seeing myself as less wrong. Honestly it almost feels stupid but I was obsessed with the lack of people like me, even seeing a teacher with good skin made me feel alone in my struggle. It was like EVERYBODY was lucky and not me. Now I see girls with acne and literally just see how pretty they are.
This probably isnât a popular experience whatsoever, but as a young kid from like 7 to 13 who didnât yet realize I was a trans boy I always wanted acne and tried everything to get it. I recently realized it was because of all the pubescent teen boys I saw and read about who had acne and Iâd wanted to look like them. Now in my 20s and on testosterone when I get frustrated with my skin, I remember that kid I used to be and think about how cool heâd think I look and feel a little better!
Thatâs so wholesome! And good luck with the testosterone stuff
Oh, I get you on that! I also kind of wanted acne as a child and regretted it when I had it. But I've come to realise that not wanting to show even my arms because of the heavy scarring was actually also a good excuse for me to stay covered anyway because of dysphoria, without feeling it was because of dysphoria. Being trans being weird sometimes đ€·
yes!!!!! i did have very mild acne but i never realized why i hated covering it up despite feeling self-conscious - because other boys didnât cover it up lol trans brain sure is something
Kind of interested in the adorable things you likely tried to get acne
I feel this too! I discovered I was nonbinary in ninth grade, and transmasculine in 2020, when I was in eleventh grade. While make up was never an appeal to me my entire life because of my desire to have a natural look and love myself for who I was, I began to realize that acne was something that never bothered me, mainly because it made me feel more masculine; and if I'm being honest, still does. I will admit that acne has never been a severe problem for me, but it is a thing I live with; and while I've never tried to worsen it, the odd sense of euphoria it's brought me has made it not that bothersome.
I think "I'm not okay with this" portrays it in a somewhat realistic way. They've both been conditioned to think it's gross, but i don't think either cares too much beyond "This is what most people think, therefore it is how you respond to this" but that could just be me
I think I agree. Like, I haven't seen the show since it originally came out, but I remember my take away from that scene was that these were imperfect teenagers having imperfect interactions with each other. There are other examples of that on the show and that scene was simply one of them. I actually kind of enjoyed the scene cause while they both go "ew, gross!" I didn't feel like they were saying the other was ugly, just that they both didn't like their own acne and were relating to that mutual feeling. After all, they didn't suddenly treat each other differently (i.e. in a negative way) after showing their acne to each other.
I remember being in highschool, and my friends and I were talking about this guy who was really cute, and had cystic acne. We felt bad for him, not because we felt it detracted from his looks, but it looked painful. I think that can be one of the more annoying aspects of acne, that constant small pain (that you sometimes forget about until you accidentally scratch it).
One of my more empowering moments was when as a teenager I refused to continue to participate in my parents' attempts to manage my acne. I had really bad acne and my parents would constantly offer me products to try and send me to the doctor's office several times to try and get recommendations, constantly give unsolicited advice about washing my face, not popping pimples, regularly changing my pillow case, etc.. I certainly had my struggles from being a person in public with acne very visible on my face, but at some point the way my parents had decided my acne was an unbelievably huge issue that I needed to constantly try and "fix" became the worse issue, and made my anxiety about it so much worse. So I refused to do anything about it and stopped pretending to use the stuff they got and didn't go to the doctor about it anymore. I know they were doing this from a place of caring, thinking treating my acne would make my life easier, but since it was not immediately cleared up with treatment (and since using cosmetic products gave me dysphoria), it just made things worse instead. I'm glad now that I'm an adult that acne isn't an issue for me anymore beyond the occasional spot, but I think even if it were, I'd be alright.
Thank you for sharing! My mother is the same way, has been since I was a teen, and even now that I am aan adult in university she always comments on my (probably) acne spots in the first few sentences.
The acne spots are worse when I get stressed, better in the summertime, but always present, so I stopped caring years ago UNTIL it is brought up at family dinner that I should try fasting cocolate or cut sugar out of my diet completely or or or...
I did the exact same thing
I mean, untreated acne can leave you with massive scars and pock marks all over your face and ruin your skin...so kids should probably try to treat acne when it pops up.
Having acne doesn't make you lesser, but it's also extremely weird to act like your parents were oppressing you because they wanted you to practice good hygiene and skin care...
@@dildonius But go back then to why do we think acne scars are bad? DO they "ruin your skin"? Or are they just a part of your skin the same way birth marks or freckles or stretch marks are. Like I mentioned, they were coming from a good place with their intentions, but making people believe that having scarring or just temporary pimples makes them ugly and should be avoided at all costs is harmful in and of itself and that's what I'm saying here. I never got any scarring from my acne and by the time I'd had acne long enough for it to be clear it wasn't going to leave any permanent marks on my face, my parents still used the "you'll have scars forever" (code, in their minds, for "you'll be ugly forever") threat to try and motivate me to try treatment after treatment. My acne was causing me no more harm than temporary superficial marks, but the way it was being reacted to was making me feel ugly and lesser. It's funny too because I have a scar on my face from a childhood injury and never in my life did my parents make me feel like it was anything but cool. So why should acne scars be treated differently? It doesn't matter if someone's acne does cause permanent changes to their skin, they are still worthy of feeling beautiful because of it and not being forced to participate in curing something that at its worst is nothing more than a source of a small amount of pain due to inflammation. Certainly there are larger health problems that resemble acne and those should certainly be treated since they can cause more than superficial changes to the body, but acne can be left untreated and you will be just fine.
@@dildonius The thing is it becomes an issue when your parents don't just want you to practice good hygiene and skin care and instead actively shame you and contribute to your insecurities regarding your skin. It's not helpful, it's damaging and especially since acne isn't always something that can and will go away, it's not weird to day this is an issue. Because it is. You can encourage your child to take care of themselves without shaming them. If your parents are very obviously ashamed about some part of yourself that you're already insecure about, wouldn't that affect you as a teen?
This brought up so much for me. And I wanna share it in snippets:
- getting bullied on the school bus by people mocking my "volcanoes"
-the random old lady advising me to dip my face in vinegar
-In high school, the cysts on my cheeks that meant that I spent years with a kleenex constantly in my hand, because at least one of the cysts would be bleeding at all time
-the random person who pulled me out of my friend group at a train station to advise me that her son had been treated with Accutane and it would certainly help me
-a boy at my summer job asking what happened to me - I had such a big cyst, he thought I'd gotten beaten up.
-the dermatologists office that felt like a humiliation because they were specialized in botox actually, but they still prescribed Accutane
-My lips bleeding constantly because of the Accutane
- in college, cysts are back, suddenly I start growing too much body hair, it's PCOS, I get prescribed the pill. My acne clears up a bit
- a dermatologist informing me that I actually also have perioral dermatitis, and therefore I should never use any soap, lotion or make up ever. Only water is allowed for my face.
- not having a single picture from the week my wife and I got engaged, because I had a cyst between my eyebrows and refused all pictures (thinking of this actually made me cry)
- being scared of booking an appointment with a photographer for professional photos in case I have a cyst that day
-at 30, still walking around with kleenex in my pockets, covered in spots of blood from when I pick at the zits. Hey, at least they are generally not cysts/abcesses anymore.
I don't know what else today than "this sucks".
*hugs* :/
And don't forget random people recommend you to just "get a boyfriend/girlfriend to balance the hormones wink-wink" đ€ŠđŒââïž
I will never understand why random people feel the need to give advice on how to improve yourself. Like, nobody asked and they don't know you, what you've already tried or if it even bothers you. I'm sorry you're going through this, much love to you.
@@TonyIgnatova Yikes! Never encountered that one before
@@MichiruEll I still can't decide which was worse - my school teacher saying it to my mom in front of me (a minor btw) or a salesman from a farmers market offering to hook me up with his son. People are unhinged
Love that this is getting talked about. This is why Iâm writing a book about a black teen girl with acne. Like actually acne not one zit lol
What is the name of the book? đđ
@Autumn Adams
Yay a black teen girl with acne! More opression point!
@@_stillborn You know you could just oh Idk, not read it.
Howâs the book going
i didn't realize until now how deep the idea of acne being gross and unattractive was ingrained in me. i believe i have ocd, and picking at my acne has been close to an addiction since i turned 13. it's always been my biggest embarrassment and i've always felt it made me appear unhygienic. i appreciate this video, i never even questioned the lack of pimples or sores in most media, at least consciously
Anxiety can make acne such a fuck to deal with. One really feeds into the other.
Ads make things so much worse too. It always felt like I was one trip to the mirror or one new product away from clear skin. It's such a stupid fantasy, but easy to obsess over when you're made to feel disgusting for not buying into it.
I love that in Owl House, they shows the blight twins having acne
When it's revealed they're just normal looking kids that was really great. The creators actually care about people.
I agree but the fact they cover it up almost permanently still stigmatizes it in a way?
@@whalesharko4465 yeah even tho i personally loved the touch that "well this very attractive character edric is just a teen with an acne! that's cool" when my little brother saw their original looks he went "so they're ugly actually?" so i definitely get you. of course i reiterated and told him no theyre def still attractive! i don't think he was as convinced and i understand him. it was more of a neutral depiction rather than positive, still good for me but not an amazing rep either.
@@whalesharko4465 this is just a guess, but I'm pretty sure their controlling perfectionist mother makes them use the concealment stones
@@hunternocedaclawthorn that's a good point tbh, but them not having visible acne for most of the show removes that representation
My first knee jerk reaction was to reassure you that your acne isnât visible in this video and that youâre beautiful, then it hit me. That exact train of thought still states that having acne is a bad thing and that the fact that you have acne is something you need to be coddled over. Itâs the same way that we as a society have learned that fat isnât a bad word. Thank you for pointing out something that needs to be addressed in how we think of people and ourselves
Yes, I need to restrain myself from commenting certain things, be it original posts or responses to people.
I remember getting acne at age 10 and starting to have social anxiety by age 11 and from age 13 to age 17 I would always avoid looking in the mirror due to how much I hated seeing myself. It was to the point where I started forgetting what I actually looked like and started having some weird face dysmorphia. Now I am 20, still with acne but at a more controllable level where the breakouts are only centered in certain areas of my face and my cystic acne no longer leave scar bumps on my face that do not go away even when the pimple has left. And even though I've come to accept my face with acne more, I know when if I had to go on about my day with a huge breakout on my face I would still have to battle my social anxiety throughout the day. Trying to convince myself that not everyone who will see me will see me with so much disgust that I am sorry they had to even see me.
I'm so sorry you're going through this. I hope videos like this one (and there need to be more of them!) will help raise more awareness to make people less judgemental and help those with acne feel more confident. I don't know if this is helpful to hear, but as someone who's been lucky enough not to struggle with acne myself, I definitely don't feel disgust when I see people with it. Usually I don't feel anything, just see a person, and at most I feel sympathy if it looks painful. I hope that doesn't come across like trying to erase bad experiences you've have had with people, just want to reassure you many people aren't looking at you with disgust or anything like it. If someone does look at you that way they aren't worth your time. I know it's a million times easier said than done, but I hope you're able to reach a place some day in the future where you feel completely at ease with your appearance.
I was so obsessed with Young Royals. Seeing teenage characters played by actual teenagers was such a new experience, on top of seeing super attractive people that had acne!
I've had acne issues as a side effect of my hypothyroidism and had exactly the same experience with a doctor - was around 18 and there to discuss my hypothyroidism related symptoms when at the end the doctor said "we're out of time but you should book another appointment with me and we can talk about that acne because I know it's really knocking your self confidence." I was STUNNED that he would ever say something like that because I hadn't been self concious about it - I wasn't even thinking about it seeing as I had other more important health issues going on - and it wasn't even that bad at the time but then I felt like maybe I SHOULD be. To this day it makes me angry because what a thing to say to an impressionable teenage girl.
That doctor is a dick.
Related to the hypothyroidism tho, I get my acne from the side of my family that doesn't have thyroid issues, but I do also have hashimotos and haven't thought about that possible correlation. I've had my acne since I was 9 or 10
Men in family health care can really be some bold mother fuckers
I didn't have acne as a teen but I have had lifelong eczema. Your comment made me realise that I got acne in my early 20s at the same time as my hypothyroidism started to really show up. I've had it ever since. I'd never put this together before so thank you!
This made me cry, because I've had severe acne since I was a teen and nothing, no prescription medication or skincare or diet has done a thing, and it's always made me feel so ugly. Thank you.
a lot if the representation tropes you talk about here are also seen when talking about fat rep. which kind of makes sense, because a lot of the time i feel like fatness and acne are used simultaneously to signal that a character is disgusting. weight and acne are both traits that are less controllable than people who don't have to worry about either are willing to realize, too. i guess my point is, if that doctor had told you he couldn't treat your ear infection until your skin cleared, you'd have speed-ran the Fat Experienceâąïž.
While I donât believe fat or lack of fat is tied to any moral value, you have to admit weight in the majority of cases is easier to control than acne, at least by a certain degree. Acne also is not thought to affect your physical health. So in most cases being in a fat body is still judged a lot more than having bad skin. Both fatness and acne is definitely used as a negative quality in teen characters, but I think in movies and TV fatness/overweight is still more vilified, and I think thatâs bc of that fact that in real life itâs been proven to be easier to change than acne is to treat and itâs also tied to multiple health concerns. I am personally all for body neutrality and wish these âissuesâ with appearance were just presented as boring and commonplace than they are in real life.
@@g.h.7661 As someone who had an eating disorder, I think you are terribly underestimating the role of mental patterns and dopamine when it comes to how people relate with food and may overeat, This is incredibly hard to re-wire, not as simple as counting calories like a robot. Also, I notice a marked difference in my body weight and others in my household who eat pretty much all meals together and they may even exercise more than me... we all maintain a baseline but mine seems to be naturally much lower, so it would take them twice as much time and effort to look like me.
I can definitely see it. Being fat or having acne is typically associated with a weakness in someoneâs diet, lifestyle, habits, etc⊠when those things are actually more complex.
For example, when people say that fatness is easy to fix and you should eat less. Yes, that does work, but youâre missing the other factors. Has the person experienced trauma and doesnât know how to cope now that they are controlling their food intake? What about those that had no choice but to eat unhealthy foods just due to inaccessibility? And what about those that were born with more fat cells than others, and therefore, they were always going to have a larger appetite than those born with less fat cells? Or hell, what about how hard is it for people that are already fat to lose weight simply because fat cells are not unresponsive tissue and fat cells release hormones that ramp up hungry when they are less full, therefore making it very VERY hard for fat people to lose weight and keep it off versus an average size person wanting to look slightly slimmer in the beach?
Acne is similar. Yes, a cleaner diet and skin routine, will help. But media never seems to acknowledge that there are other factors to acne such as hormones due to genetics (people with Klinefelter syndrome for example have a higher chance of having a lot of acne), their environment and pollution, lack of access to non-irritating cleaning products (soaps, disinfectants, detergents, etcâŠ) because of income, etc⊠there is a huge blame of fatness and acne on the individual.
Having acne on top of poverty, being queer, disabled and homeless was overwhelming for me. Nobody teased me because they knew I was in a homeless shelter and I think they were just too shy to talk to me. Itâs weird but in Alaska, if youâre not from there, kids generally ignore you. But I didnât like having acne because my self confidence was zero by default. I was closeted queer living in a religious family in a very expensive state similar to California or Hawaii. It felt like everyone else had money and thankfully, I benefited from a well funded public school system so I threw myself into my special interests and studies.
The mental impact and insecurities of acne and other skin conditions like eczema etc cannot be understated!! I used to have bad acne when I was rlly young to the point that random strangers would comment on it and even tho it's completely gone now the comments from others at the time will probably haunt me forever lol. And the companies that are cute-ifying acne bug me bcs it still implies individual spots need to be covered (Ă la Simpsons and The Wilds) but dont work on destigmatising more long term cases of acne. Like mild acne is cute but more extreme cases arent the 'look' these brands want to advertise.
Yss..it is infuriating when u suffer from xtreme case of acne and sccaring and people with spotless skin 'motivate' u to embrace ur natural beauty
idk if this is what the skin neutrality approach is, but i've been thinking about this like about i don't personally want characters with acne portrayed as attractive as much as i want it not to matter whether characters are attractive. i want to see characters, especially girls and women, who don't fit beauty standards and don't try to, who are interesting and important and defined by what they do rather than how pretty or hot or whatever they are. i worry a little that reacting against the idea of acne being "ugly" can be a further way to throw "ugly" people under the bus. we don't need to believe that a larger category of people is attractive as much as we need to not define people's worth by their attractiveness.
this. Thank you. Can I borrow what you've written for a video essay? You summed up what i was thinking so well.
@@qweencharis409 if it helps you absolutely grab it! i'd love to see people talk about these things more
Yeah, i'm content with my skin and it's not something I beat myself up over. But I don't love it nor do I wish it upon anybody.
Thank you for talking about this. I've had cystic acne for 17 years and it's pure hell. Round after round of accutane (which made my hair fall out and gave me severe depression!), but the acne keeps coming back. People are so ignorant and nasty about something they don't understand. We deserve positive representation as much as anyone.
from my experience in the disability community, similar discourse as the 'skin positivity vs. neutrality' comes up when discussing if we would give up our disability or not. i support a social model of disability, i dont think disabilities in general need to be cured, but my disability causes me to be in pain, all the time, and if i had a choice to give that part up i would. it's more complicated than just "love yourself!"
Finally someone understands something I've been trying to say for years! Sometimes the reason certain people want their disability to go away isn't because of sociatel pressures or because they haven't "accepted themselves", but because it actually causes physical pain. It's great when you are able to accept your disability, but sometimes it's more complicated than that.
@@dangernoodledee111 I'm not "officially" disabled but I have lots of prolonged pain and other stuff going on. I never got into the disability community but reading this, I'm so confused that that's even a thing to shame people who wish to be non-disabled?! My former roommate had extremely low sight and another friend had chronic pain and a fucked up leg after being hit by a car. I saw them struggle so much, be it work, dating or pain related and it seemed obvious to me that they would choose normality over their condition. It's traumatic to be different in this society and it's human nature to want to avoid pain. Kudos to all the disabled folks out there who embrace the way they are but to me it feels delusional to demand that everyone now please like themselves. Acceptance is probably needed for a content life and there are things that can't be changed. But still, idk.
I've always had acne since since I was young but for a year or so I had an outbreak that was incredibly painful both physically and emotionally. It was so draining having to be careful about where I laid my face in my pillow or how I washed my face cause it physically hurt to touch my skin. I was really fortunate to be able to go to a dermatologist and it got a lot better, and I was told the cause was hormonal. I took antibiotics, was put on birth control, had laser treatment done, and had to use a ton of topical treatments for several months to see any progress. I still have mild acne but it's a lot more manageable.
I think one of the worst parts about it socially is the unsolicited advice. I've legitimately had people ask me if I've tried washing my face... I get that a lot of times they're just trying to be helpful but it definitely comes off as invasive and uncalled for. Or people making snide remarks about your skin as if you aren't already aware of it.
It was so nice watching Young Royals for the first time and seeing Willhelm with visible skin texture. I especially love that he's portrayed as a well liked, attractive guy whose skin has no bearing on his personality or the plot. I also noticed more visible skin texture in some characters in Heartstopper, which was really cool. I hope in the future there will be more teen shows with younger actors who look and act like teenagers, acne included. Thanks for talking about this!!
The unsolicited advice is so hurtful.
I kid you not, my skin gets clearer when I do NOT wash every day. Iâll use micellar water, but actual soap every couple days. When I soap up daily, my dry skin gets drier, and somehow I get painful red zits that have turned into cellulitis resulting in the hospital.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria that's another thing, you're supposed to moisturize after using harsh soaps like that because it does make it worse like you've noticed
So if u use just about any anti acne soaps, u need to moisturize afterwards or else the skin will pretty much aggressively try to replenish those oils
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria That sucks :(( I guess it also depends on your skin type, I have really oily skin so not washing my face is really not an option lmao especially in the summer and where I live. I suppose environmental factors work in conjunction with genetics in that regard. It definitely takes a lot of trial and error to see what works best for your own skin, it's never as simple as giving out general advice.
For teen me it was more of the hyperpigmentation left after the acne is gone. But for adult me, it was the hormonal cystic acne due to PCOS and thyroid issues. it's true that no disease is more psychologically damaging than acne because people find it SOOOO important that they point it out.
as someone who struggles with dermatillomania, i appreciate this so much. iâve always wondered why acne was deemed ugly in the media and itâs never talked about so thank you.
Yassss. So few people know the psychological toll that acne can have, and I'm not talking about self esteem... If you have dermatillomania like us, then these flair ups can be so distracting and disturbing. I can be so caught up in my mind obsessing about how my face is "filled with garbage," how disgusted I am by it, and how I need to stop whatever I'm doing to "fix" it.
I've struggled with acne for years (being a teenager with glasses, braces and acne aka the media trifecta of ugliness sure was an experience) and it's only in recent years that I've noticed how much it affects my self-esteem. I stopped wearing make-up when I started uni after literal years of never leaving the house without it and while a lot of that choice was just laziness, it also happened during a time when my skin was relatively clear so it was easier to not wear makeup. And in this age of body positivity, I now often experience a double shame: I'm ashamed of my skin and ashamed I can't "just embrace it". So then I feel like a bad person on two levels! I really wish there was more acne representation. I vividly remember how important seeing CZcamsrs like dodie being on camera with their real skin was for teenage me and honestly, if there had been more of that maybe I wouldn't feel as miserable in my skin when my acne says hi. Thank you so much for this video!
When you described someone "seeing through the makeup and just HAVING toi say something rude about it" omg, trans feels right there too. Huge hugs, people suck HARD sometimes.
This was a fantastic video, and something I wish so much would have been around earlier. I hope that people who need to see this do!
So many aspects of social acne intolerance parallel the trans experience. The other part that really struck me was her description of using make-up in an effort to get people to look past her acne and see the real her. That desire for others to see the real "me" just hits so hard.
TW: ED, wounds
From the age of 13 to now (21), I've had constant cystic acne across my face, neck, back, arms, and frequently other random areas of my body. It affected my body image in such drastic ways. I saw myself as disgusting. I developed an eating disorder and I recognized that starving myself made my acne better, so that became one of my main motivations. I was eventually hospitalized.
In the beginning of the pandemic I took the masks and social isolation as a time to finally go on Accutane. The medication causes severe lifelong side effects, including some that have been studied but are not acknowledged by the drug companies (such as IBS and other gut issues). In the first few months of being on Accutane, your skin goes through something they call the "purge", it's just the worst acne you've had in your life. My face developed deep pockets of cystic acne that sometimes connected to each other in winding tunnels under my skin. One cyst under my chin got as large as a golf ball and had to be drained by a dermatologist because of the pain it was causing me. While on the medication I also experienced eye pain that had me unable to open my eyes unless the room was almost entirely pitch black. I couldn't use my phone or a computer (during college, online). Now, I have permanently dry eyes and dry lips.
But, it was all worth it to get rid of the acne. Or, technically to make it less severe. I still have acne in every place I did before; but now it's extremely mild, barely noticeable.
I am not a very image focused person. The only social media I post on is Reddit. I don't go anywhere, like ever. But cystic acne is such a horrible thing to deal with and the thought of it affecting me for the rest of my life, or even for another decade, was just unthinkable.
i used to have pretty bad acne when i was a teenager, made especially bad by the fact i had a lot of facial hair which i felt i need to purge. i went on accutane when i was 15 and man, it was one of the most uncomfortable six months of my life hahaha i'm glad i did it though. over 10 years later and at most i get one zit a month that's totally manageable. but it was tough at the time
First, Iâm glad youâre doing better! Second, fwiw I did Accutane a decade ago and the only long term side effect Iâve had is my lips tend to be on the dry side, and even that Iâm not totally sure itâs related to accutane. (I sometimes exfoliate my lips and Iâm a big fan of stacked skincareâs hydrating lip peel.)
@@francesgold6649 That is a remarkably rude comment. Shame on you. OP had constant cystic acne, which can be remarkably painful. Mocking them for trying to improve that is downright cruel.
God, yes, I know the feeling, I went on Accutane too. I had acne all over my face that was noticeable, but generally didn't look _that_ severe or debilitating to others. The problem is that it was extremely painful and constant, I almost never had an acne free face for even a day. It would appear in the creases around my nose, lips, and chin, and would make talking, smiling, and eating difficult. The pimples would frequently break and bleed. It was impossible to shave without cutting pimples open, but not shaving would irritate my skin even more, with tight, sore skin getting poked or pulled by stubble and hair. It started when I was around 15 and got worse with age, still going stronger than ever when I was 25.
I went on Accutane after trying everything else I could find for over a decade. I knew it was risky, but it was the only thing I had left to try to cure my debilitating chronic pain. It definitely felt _awful_ going on it, I had to apply thick layers of moisturizer every couple hours for months, and I had a lot of joint pain. I also got a corneal ulcer in one eye that was very painful. Four years later, my face is still a bit too dry to feel comfortable without applying some moisturizer once a day and my eyes are a little more sensitive and prone to soreness than they used to be, but I'm almost 100% acne free and I don't have constant blisters and open sores.
It was definitely worth it for me, but I do stress to others that it had permanent side effects, there's a risk for much more serious side effects, and it's not something to take lightly. At the same time, I also try to explain to people who don't "get it" that even when acne doesn't _look_ that bad, it can still be extremely painful, and that going to such extreme lengths to treat it isn't always a vanity thing.
about still having dry lips and skin - it probably will get better. i have tiny, thin blackheads on my nose, and they went away completely during accutane. and they STAYED GONE for two years after i finished the treatment. the effects really linger on your body for a while, so you still have a shot! good luck
i was a chubby kid with bad acne, so it sucked seeing traits that i had only used to portray ugly and unhygienic characters. it really made me feel disgusting and it was especially hurtful when the nice main characters, whom i idolized, were disgusted by these features.
I'm really happy that shows aimed towards kids/teens are starting to change this portrayal.
I grew up being very insecure about my acne because even though I was homeschooled my parents would worry over and bother me about it. I would wear makeup at home. Plus the tendency I have to uncontrollably pick at my skin, making it very red, I would cover that up too. My mother has many scars and often told me not to pick, but I can't control it. I never saw any of these media portrayals either but still feel shame due to acne. I'm glad you made this video.
Now I mostly cover up the evidence of picking, rather than acne. I feel more shame around picking because I've received more comments from people around me who have acne, and they tell me not to pick, even when they are neurodivergent and know from experience that it isn't a controllable behavior.
@@AnnaCatherineB do you happen to have adhd? I have a friend that does the same and apparently it's a form of stymming.
As a 33-year-old who has been struggling with acne since I was around 12, THANK YOU for covering this. Everything you said was so spot-on (heh). I've struggled with acne my entire life, but when I turned 30 it became worse than ever. I have a few compounding skin issues that unfortunately mean almost anything can cause me to break out, and the emotional toll is immense. At this point in my life, I've come to terms with almost everything about my appearance except that. It completely eviscerates my self-esteem to the point of not wanting to leave the house whenever I'm having a bad flare-up. I've been driven to tears on mornings when I wake up and can feel a new zit forming. And it's all compounded by helplessness. I've been to the dermatologist, I've made changes to my diet, I change my pillowcase every night and wash my make-up tools after every use. I do everything "right," but it doesn't matter. It's so isolating, and I do find myself looking for representation in media--for proof that acne can just be acne without having to mean anything about my attractiveness, my hygiene, or who I am as a person. Anyway, seriously, THANK YOU for your vulnerability. It has made me feel so much less alone.
I am so glad you posted, I've had acne since I was 11 and am now 31. It never fully went away but was quite good in college and shortly after. For the past few years it's gotten pretty bad again, like pre-birth control bad. The problem is, I'm still on birth control. It's like my skin decided to revolt and wanted a second round of puberty! My confidence has definitely taken a hit and I deliberately wear surgical masks whenever I leave the house because it's easier than applying foundation to cover it all up. I feel like the only 30 year old with moderately bad acne (all over, red and angry but not cysts), everyone else my age just gets one or two zits. Thank you for helping me feel less alone too! :)
@@evercuriousmichelle I hate that you have to go through what I do but it really is a relief to not be alone! All my friends who complain about acne get like...the rare tiny blackhead that isn't even noticeable. I know they're annoying but it can't compare to the massive cystic zits around my chin and mouth that make it miserable to even smile. Your experience sounds so similar to mine, I didn't really struggle with acne much in my 20s. I still got zits but they were manageable and rarely cystic. Then my 30's hit and it was like an overnight change. My dermatologist explained to me that the 30's is the second big hormonal shift after puberty, so it can cause acne flare-ups. Second puberty...gee...thanks =_= But seriously sticking a pimple patch on those bad boys and covering it with a mask when I'm out??? Life-changing.
@@katyb4527 đ I had no idea our hormones change in our thirties again! No wonder! Also I'm sorry the cysts are so painful!
I just want to say thank you so much for this video. Iâm a college student whoâs home with his abusive family for the summer, and my acne has always been one of the main targets of my abuse. My mom will always be up in my face, popping my zits, saying that Iâm ruining my face because I havenât been using the creams or the pills or the topicals or whatever it is that she says is supposed to help. She constantly makes me feel like Iâm dirty, like I should be ashamed⊠She would scrub my face with dish soap and then get mad at me when I told her it felt like my nose was burning because I got soap up there. If I ever had any reaction to her digging her nails into my face to pop a pimple, or her clinging onto my skull so I couldnât pull away from the pain, she would just tell me that itâs my fault. That I wasnât keeping my face clean and thatâs why Iâm being put in meltdown-inducing pain. She made me feel horrible for having something I could barely control, and every time I would end up crying in my room because I felt like I was ugly. I felt like I was disgusting. I felt like I was a disgrace. This video came at a perfect time where this specific abuse and self hatred has started up again, and you donât know how much it means to hear someone say that Iâm normal. That what my mom said would âruin my pretty face,â is not something to be vilified. That my worth in life is not dictated by what grows on my face. And I honestly canât thank you enough for that.
similar things happen to me with my mom. i just had a facetime call with her today and she commented on my acne three separate times and how i MUST put on cream or soap or what have you. lesson learned, no more facetime calls :/ i thankfully live away from home so i thought i would be able to avoid this type of conversation, but nope. moms always feel the need to put in their unwarranted two cents. good luck pal!
I'm so sorry you're going through this, it sounds really really awful. I'm glad this video could help a bit. You really are normal and there's nothing wrong with having acne or any other skin condition. It doesn't make you lesser and really shouldn't be something you have to think about beyond any treatments needed to make you physically comfortable. I hope you're able to move away for good soon and can surround yourself with people who support you and see your worth. There's so much more to life than having 'clear skin'!!!
This did remind me of the way my dad talks about my older brother, who seems to have pretty persistent acne.
In general, when both of my brothers were younger (early/mid teens) and had acne breakouts, my dad took it upon himself to "deal with it" by popping their zits. My younger brother doesn't have acne anymore, but like I said, my older brother still does.
It's weird hearing my dad talk about it, because he sounds so legitimately distressed about my brother's acne, like it's horrible and unsightly and etc., but I just don't really notice? Or, well, I just take it in stride, I guess, I don't take note of it. It's how my brother's skin looks, moving on. I've never asked my brother about he feels on his acne (in general I don't talk to him bc I dislike him for unrelated reasons), but it kinda feels like projection on my dad's account. Every time my dad turns to my brother and starts scrutinizing his face, I watch as my brother deflates a little and sighs, like that's the first thing my dad sees of him. It seems really shitty, if I'm being honest.
Iâve never had much problems with acne so this video was definitely enlightening. Personally I rarely notice peoples acne so I never realized how much of an effect it had on people who have it.
One time I did have a rather large pimple on my face but I didnât think that much about it. But then my FIVE YEAR OLD sister said to me, âarenât you embarrassed to go out with that huge pimple on your face?â It makes me so sad that sheâs so young yet she already thinks that acne is something to be embarrassed and ashamed of
I've also recently had my acne return in full force after about 6 months with clear skin (thanks to my IUD insertion), and those six months were bliss. I felt good when I looked in the mirror and I was getting compliments all the time from people who'd known me for a longer time. Now it's back, and it's been VERY difficult to not spiral out about it. It feels so silly, but the reality is it DOES change the way people perceive me, and it sucks.
i was so happy to see teens with acne on young royals! they looked so... _real_
The amount of âhave you tried washing your face twice a day?â âWhat do you USE to wash your face?â âWhatâs wrong with your face?â âWhy are you so red, were you crying?â I received in high school and TO THIS DAY is horrific. Like seriously, youâd think people believe Iâve never seen a mirror, and yes, it hurts like hell.
I washed my face constantly because of this. Funnily enough, it turns out I have really sensitive skin and a lot of allergies, and all the harsh products I was using were destroying my skin and making it worse. Great times...
This video is so important to me. I didn't get acne until I was about 17 and it wasn't until way later that I diagnosed with a hormone imbalance due to PCOS. I used to sob if I had to go somewhere without a full face of makeup on because I felt so ugly and disgusting and like the world would run from me. I take a medication that had cleared my skin to a point where it's not even traceable anymore but even a single pimple sends me into a spiral all because of the way I saw acne growing up and the way it made me feel about myself
can we talk about the worst part of having acne ? spending so much money on foundation and having to wear it all the time
You... Don't have to?
Also wearing foundation can actively make acne worse, because it clogs the pores - not to mention a lot of makeup has toxic ingredients that damage skin over time
I think the worst part is not necessarily spending money on covering it up but in general how much money we spend on trying to fix it, whether that's specific treatments, doctor's appointments, skin care or make-up. I think that's more universal than just foundation.
Being bullied or shamed because of it is also a huge issue and we probably wouldn't even spend so much to try and fix it if society didn't tell us having red bumps on your face is disgusting.
@@1234bobfox literally in this video she talks about the very real impacts it can have socially, on peoples perception of your personality and your proffessionalism, and on your own mental health.
It's not as simple as just choosing not to do it, when that choice can significantly worsen your quality of life (even though it shouldn't)
@@mariekeana I like this take, because I have never liked wearing foundation over acne. I hate how it feels and I always thought it looked bad (probably just didnât know how to put on makeup back then lol). But skin care and doctorâs appointments, oh yes. My acne is under control now, but there is absolutely a price tag to keep it that way.
I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about it in this way ... it's like you made me confront a level of shame I've been carrying that didn't even know I had, let alone question. Thank you so much!
Reminds me of the âUgly Laws.â Laws put in place in the late 1800âs til the 1970âs that made it illegal for someone deemed âuglyâ to be seen in public. This affected disabled and homeless people directly. Iâve seen the same discrimination on CZcams and Ticktock lately. People telling amputees âyour body is too disturbing for CZcams guidelines.â
As a girl who grew up with pretty severe cystic acne and developed scars that I still have as an adult at 28 (and still get breakouts around that time of the monthđ), I'm tired of being portrayed as or being made to feel less than or unclean because of something entirely out of my control. Thank you for speaking on this and bringing a bit of awareness to the weird stigma around spots. Your video made me emotional.
Someday I hope that we no longer have to listen to shows and movies using us as the butt of a joke that we're not in on.
Lol damn, watching this made me tear up. I've suffered from acne on both my face and back from the moment I entered puberty, and still live with it today as a 29yo. I've tried a bunch of different washes and routines, but I don't have the money to see a professional or try the more expensive options, and over time I've just given up. It's absolutely negatively affected me; I constantly avoid going out, always fully cover up when I do, and I don't even bother pursuing relationships because I feel too self-conscious and ugly for them. If I never had acne, or could even just be one of those folks that naturally grew out of it when hitting adulthood, I can't help but imagine my life right now would be very, very different and a much happier one at that.
Thank you for taking the time to talk about this and share your own experiences.
(Also lmao, the irony of getting an acne cream ad right as the video got to the advertising segment jkfl;as)
Are you me? Because this is my experience. The impossible choice of wearing less clothes to let skin breathe and maybe get a bit better (at least my KP mostly goes away from sunlight) and wearing more to cover everything because people will see. My self-esteem plummets whenever it gets worse and by the time it's better and I've recovered, another wave is coming on.
This has made me think a lot about how I treat others and how I view them as a person with the privilege of light acne. Honestly I think everyone should take care of their skin, but like you said, the skincare doesn't help some, and they shouldn't be treated differently than those of us who can get away with drugstore products. Even my skin issues give me anxiety, it's tough to imagine how much worse I would feel if it got worse. Thank you for this important video. I have some thinking and retraining to do lol
Your story about the doctorâs office really got to me. I got to a point with my acne where I was actually pretty neutral towards it. I couldnât afford a dermatologist and I knew I was doing everything âright,â so I kinda just quit worrying about it. So it was kind of a punch in the gut when someone would comment on it out of the blue like that. Like I finally got semi-comfortable with it and then they just had to open their mouth.
I will never forget when one of my friends with more severe acne told me that one of our other friends told him to just wash his face. I then was with this other friend and he made a similar comment to my friend and I WENT OFF. I told him how if it were as easy as washing your face no one would have acne. I was telling him how expensive acne products can be and how it is not something you can control even with these products. It's genetic or hormonal, and he just went on to say "well I wash my face and I don't have acne." We need better casual representation for reasons like this, and for all the wonderful reasons you mention in the video.
I'm so so sorry that you have to read rude and hurtful comments about your skin. Reading through the comments on this video, I can see that others, like me, are really grateful for the fact that you have spoken so candidly and openly about a topic which is clearly very personal to you. Thank you for sharing your vulnerability, because it truly helps and enriches your viewers and I hope that it helps you too. đ
When I was younger I hated having pictures taken of me to the point I refused to be in photos with my very elderly great grandparents and my parents got really upset with me. Your comments made me realize that might not have just been me being silly. Now I'm better about photos, but it took a LONG time
I did the exact same and now I hate that I have basically zero pictures of me from when I was 12 to 14. At the same time I can still remember how bad it felt. I remember it so well I can still feel the dread and self hate if I think about those times. The emotional toll of acne was insane for me. So I try not to be so harsh on my past self .
I've struggled with acne my entire life, I was already bullied in school and acne just made it worse. I hated looking at my face and body. It's gotten a lot better in adulthood but I still have body acne. Thank you so much for talking about this, it makes me feel much less alone.
When I was ten, I was the only one in my house, and friend group with acne. No one taught me how to deal with it. Occasionally, in books they would just tell you that your overreacting and just ignore the pimple until it went away, but absolutely nothing for people like me who just had constant spots popping up everywhere. I spent countless nights googling at home remedies and then erasing my history, because I was too embarrassed to ask my parents to buy something for me, and they wouldnât know what kinds of things to do anyway since both of them never really got acne. Sometimes, I would wear a literal pillowcase over my head in the mornings because I couldnât bare to be seen, and just pretend I was doing it for fun. I would stay in my room all day sometimes, and say I was trying it as a challenge. I even used to wear a hat every day to put a bit more of a shadow on my face and cover my forehead acne. It wasnât until recently that I got access to the internet and have been able to learn a bit more about skincare. Even still, itâs not much better but I feel less alone. I just wish there were a better way for me to deal with it as a kid because I did a lot of shit to my skin that had left me with so much scarring and even more insecurities
Literally the only example I could think of where teenagers just have acne and itâs no big deal was Young Royals. â ïž
This video is everything to me. Iâve struggled for so long, and my anxiety made me a chronic acne picker. It was never bad enough to medical treatment, but it was always my fault I looked the way I did so said everyone around me. I have acne scars now, still get acne, and I remember a few summers ago I said something about liking my acne scars, saying it gave my face character, and Iâll never forget my mom scolding me for not caring, for being disgusting for having them, how i should be ashamed to have scars. And itâs always been depressing. So thank you for this. I donât remember where I was going lmfao Iâm just very grateful for this video
I agree with you about acne scars looking cool! There's something very rugged about them
I was a terrible picker, too. That sucks that your mom reacted that way when you were trying to make something positive out of it. đ I was lucky enough to have a parent (dad) who struggled with bad acne as a teenager, so he was always very sympathetic. He would tell me to try not to pick, but he was also like âI know itâs hard, I used to do it, too.â
@@krich5906 oh wow yay! I thought I was the only one. I think it adds so much character and life to a face, and these days Iâm proud of how my face looks đ„°
@@myconfusedmerriment ah thatâs alright. My mom is obsessed with image and looking âpresentableâ. My dad was very similar to yours, except his âtry not to pickâ was harsher and more judgey. But Iâm super super happy you had a supportive parent through it! Cuz it really is tough. I mean Iâm 23, and I still struggle with it! Thatâs so cool your dad was always on your side through it! đ
Hearing those studies was heart-wrenching. I have chronic, usually minor acne that sometimes gets cystic, as well as rosacea (which means my face is almost always pink/red, even if it's not flaring up). I recently had someone I care about tell me "I think you worry too much about that". And I couldn't quite put into words why that wasn't comforting. What that loved one didn't know is I've been mocked and ridiculed for years, even by my own family for this skin. I'm self conscious because of the horrible things I've heard in response. One time at a family reunion an uncle skipped even saying hello and just said "You know, you'll be really pretty once that acne clears up." The worst part was that the time period around that was so bad psychologically that I refused to be in photos at all, which caused friction with people who wanted to take them, and that day in particular my skin was finally "clear" by comparison. It was the first day in weeks if not months that I wasn't in pain and felt like I could function without people seeing me skin-first. Anyway, thank you for this deep dive. It means a lot.
I have struggled with anxiety my whole life. I was socially awkward as a kid so when I got my first pimple at 7, itâs really not surprising how dysmorphic my self-image became after a couple years. thanks for this video, I feel *very* seen
I remember being about 16/17 and just starting this internship at a marketing department when one of my coworkers, who was sitting three desks away from me, sent me an EMAIL in which she recommended acne treatment products... As if I hadn't already tried every single product out there. And I guess she thought she was helping out, I'm sure she meant well, but that email really devastated me.
God I HATE that. Why do people need to point those things out? I started to lose my hair at a young age and people always mentioned it. It made me feel awful.
It's fascinating how appearance-based oppression and the reactions to it are so similar for those with acne and fat folks. Every beat, from unsolicited advice from randos, and doctors making inappropriate comments to hiring discrimination based on appearance is almost word for word what happens to fat people too. Even the idea that women pioneer acceptance movements that men participate in and benefit from but do not reciprocate on the same level is exactly what has happened in the body positivity movement. Your conclusion is spot on too, that individual contentment with oneself, while nice, is not the most pressing issue but a change in society is necessary because people are being denied essential things like employment opportunities because of this discrimination.
I hate that acne is thought of as a teenage problem only by so many people. It often feels like people see me as immature because I have skin problems. I had flawless skin all through my teenage years and it wasn't until my twenties that I started struggling with acne and eczema.
As a black transgirl not on hormones, dealing with discolouration due to facial hair... I have always felt seen by folks with skin issues. However I also have trypophobia which acne (in animation) can occasionally trigger. But that's my own personal issue, and no one else's fault or problem. I don't agree with people being made to feel ashamed of their bodies and skin, ever. Period.
I have trypophobia as well and I sometimes feel bad when it's hard for me to watch certain skin conditions as I don't want to be like a bully. Well, I never act on it outwardly but eg I don't want to click on clips about acne, monkey pox etc as it's usually a really uncomfortable feeling. So I feel you for that đđ
Thank you so much for doing this video! I have acne since I was around 11, so over 10 years now. And like you, I've noticed the consequences of it so much. Kow there's almost no representation and mostly negative one. Hearing how I should wash my face, or if I tried this or that from people I didn't know (well). Hearing how other teens freaked out over having one small pimple for a few days because it's disgusting, which let me to think of myself as such. Using foundation and concealer for years because I thought I had to even though I hated it and felt even worse (thankfully I stopped this and feel confident for a few years to go makeup free). It really is one reason of my social anxiety. My acne had gotten better over a few years and came back last year and with it all the self-doubt, self-hate and anxiety over it. Thankfully it gotten better again but the few pimples I still have and all my scars will stay. And I really wonder rn about once I finish uni, how searching for a job will go because of my acne, when I don't wear makeup. Thank you really so much, this video ment a lot to me and I know it took a bit, so I'm so proud of you for talking about it.
This is exactly how I felt for years. I developed acne very early and was bullied for years. I have been lucky enough to be able to take expensive tablets which massively reduced it, but my scars and blackheads still make me really insecure. Itâs recently come back more with face masks and other things and my confidence has plummeted. Itâs both societal expectations and trauma for me.
I grew up watching Degrassi the Next Generation from 2001 with my mom and I was 6 at the time and I always remember my mom talking about how awesome it was that you could see the teens actual acne and it was no big deal not like the disney channel and such so I had some good representation in that show but not enough to combat all the bad representation and commercials and lack of actual cystic acne being treated as normal, espcially like you showed in The Wilds. I ended up having cystic acne and definitely have struggled for a long time with it and self-confidence/self-worth about it. I use to wear makeup but now I haven't since like 2018 maybe?
i absolutely loved what you said about acne neutrality instead of positivity. any sort of "positivity" trend on the internet always feels forced. and lets be real here, i have never felt increasingly beautiful or seen when i see celebrities posting about their imperfect skin. im sick of seeing Instagram posts and what not forcing this idea that imperfections are beautiful. it just brings more attention to flaws, and makes people more weary about it. i don't need celebrities telling me that acne is beautiful, when we all know it isn't. id rather just not think about it. id rather just be able to leave the house without assuming that people will judge me for it. bringing attention to acne makes it worse.
Thank you so much for talking about this. Iâm a woman in my 40s and I still get acne and Iâve gotten it since my teens. I totally got the social stigma about where it was coming from; eating too much chocolate, too much greasy food, touching my face too much, not washing it enough. Jokes on them, I have PCOS and therefore shitty hormones.
I started at the dermatologist before the gynecologist for sure. There was also lots of pressure from my parents to clear it up. It hadnât been too bad in high school, but it got much worse in college. My parents took me to a new dermatologist and they put me on accutane. It was awful, as if the acne wasnât bad enough my cheeks would just peel off in sheets. I looked like an extra in a zombie movie. After a few months of that (including monthly liver and pregnancy blood tests), my doctor was happy enough with my results and worried enough about my declining mental health that he took me off of them. My face was clearer after that for a few years but then it came back. Being on birth control does help mine, but see bad hormones above.
I addition to this, Iâve never been great at make up. I tried and tried in high school and college, but while some girls could cover it up flawlessly. I always looked like I tried and failed and it kind of made the acne more obvious. So I just stopped trying. I saw that men around me would get acne and didnât feel obligated to cover it up so I said fuck it. I would say now Iâm as acne neutrality. I still get it. I donât love it, but I donât really give it much thought. I think thatâs about the best I can hope for.
My sport required me to wear a lot of equipment and it consistently gave me acne during the on season. Sure, during the off season I always have a handful of pimples scattered across my face anyways but since my acne basically is seasonal, I so clearly can observe the difference in how I get treated. People will offer me hygiene advice completely unsolicited, friends will examine me with worry asking if Iâm sleeping or eating alright and store clerks in beauty shops will ask me about it when Iâm not even looking for a face product. Itâs frustrating :/
I'm a writer and have been finding it difficult to find the energy to write. this felt like an espresso shot of motivation, this cured all my writer's block I now want to give all my characters acne. Thank you so much for making this video!
What Iâve found interesting about my journey with acne is that for years my face was *covered* with cystic and other large acne. For the past 4ish years though, my skin has been relatively clear with only a couple pimples at a time, and cystic acne has become pretty rare for me.
However, I still think of myself as having âsevereâ acne. I think itâs a body dysmorphia type thing. My brain has just never adjusted to the idea that I wonât be covered in pimples for all of time
While I've only ever had mild facial acne, I got pretty severe cystic acne on my thighs over the winter. Luckily I was able to go the dermatologist and get a cream prescribed that eventually made the bumps go away, but there's still some discoloration. It definitely affected my self image even though it wasn't visible. The lack of representation of acne and especially more severe acne made me feel like I was alone in having it and contributed to me not even being sure what was happening with my skin in the first place.
I had a massive squish on this boy in high school, all 4 years, and he had severe acne. He was incredibly cute, and one of the more popular kids. Literally, irl, a lot of teenagers *don't* care and see right past it, because we all have it? (of course, my generation is noticeably more... conscious of this kind of thing too)
i have adult acne, my sister had it too due to hormonal issues and she has icepick scars all over her face now. i also had a really really painful skin condition that still flares up, but at one point it was so bad i couldn't walk or sit or even lay down for sleep. iam covered in scars that won't go away, also because I'm dark skinned so it just stays. i was so scared at one point that i would preemptively apologize to partners about my skin. it's been a long journey but I'm at peace with my condition. i just wish that it was portrayed with the same realness on tv and social media. it's so stigmatized and treated like gross but wtf almost everyone i know has or had a skin condition!
i remember my mom saying these words after complaining about my acne "i cant even look at your face" it hurt me so much i just wanna cut off my face and sew on a new one