Let’s Talk About Skin Confidence

Anyone can be confident in their glowing poreless complexions but try being confident when you’re rattled by the insecurity acne brings. Now, that’s a tough battle-- especially when society, the media, and (old-school) beauty brands are telling you how unacceptable your breakouts are. Everywhere you turn, TV, editorial spreads in fashion mags, Instagram, etc. people are airbrushing their skin to appear flawless. We’re all guilty of it-- that quick app that makes us feel a little closer to perfect before we hit the ‘share’ button on Instagram, it’s hard to resist.

So it’s no surprise that, when it comes to real life, all we want to do is hide out in our room and block out all of our mirrors when acne gets the better of us.

Below are two IG users that highly discourage that. @skinwithlea and @freethepimple_ share their acne journey on social media in an effort to change the stigma around skin imperfection. We sat down for a (virtual) Q&A to figure out how to love our skin no matter what. Here’s what they had to say:

Louisa @freethepimple_

Hero: What mental health advice would you give someone dealing with acne?

Louisa: My mental health suffered a lot because of my acne. No one around me had acne so I felt alone. I decided to go on Instagram and search hashtags like acne, pimples, etc because it led me to people that were showing their struggle with acne - from this, I found an amazing community of people who all follow each other on Instagram. They share advice, honest images, makeup, etc. that relates to acne and suddenly I wasn't alone. I gained all these online friends. My best advice is actually go on Instagram. Instagram can be a very dark place but it can also be very positive.

Hero: What would you like to see more of in 2019 when it comes to acne acceptance?

Louisa: I want to see more brands using models with acne - see it in magazines, billboards, catwalks, tv, movies, etc it needs to stop being covered! In addition I would love for acne brands to actually use acne sufferers, not models with perfect skin!

Hero: What helps you up when your skin confidence is at a low point?

Louisa: I decide to wear makeup. I decide to play around and make myself feel pretty, however, I also look back at images of my skin and remember it gets better and sometimes it gets worse, it is a journey but it will get better!

Lea @skinwithlea

Hero: When did you start building a positive mindset around acne and what was the turning point?

Lea: I started building a more positive mindset around acne when I started my Instagram account in August of this year. It was a super spontaneous decision, I just wanted to share my journey and skin updates with people who understood but it turned into so much more. I realized that I could apply the healthy mindset I had gained from a super hard time I went through 2 years ago to my skin and my insecurities. I was just fed up with hiding and feeling like my skin held me back in life and so I started to leave my house without makeup on and it all went from there. I realized that I was excluding loving my skin and feeling confident despite my acne from the self love and happiness I had already developed and so including that into my personal development journey was a very important step for me. And now I can help others do the same which is amazing.

Hero: What are some steps we (our team and community) can do to reduce the stigma around acne?

Lea: I think society still associates acne with being dirty and gross. The only people with acne on TV are homeless people in the back or the villain. So many people struggle with acne at some point in their life so I think there should be a lot more representation of it in media. I think just sharing your journey and showing your imperfections and basically saying, “hey this is me and that's okay" is an amazing way to show other people that it's okay to have acne and it's not weird. It doesn't make you less of a person.

Hero: What helps you up when your skin confidence is at a low point?

Lea: What helps me when I'm throwing a pity party for myself is turning my focus away from it and to something I actually CAN control because the truth is, you can't HATE your skin into clearing up. It does nothing for me sitting there feeling sorry for myself because that won't make my skin clear up. So what I CAN control is my attitude around the whole thing. I can choose to focus on something positive, something I love about myself, something I'm looking forward to, etc. This took me a long time and a lot of patience and constantly refocusing but it comes pretty easy to me now. I'm not always confident, I still feel upset about my skin at times and that is okay, as long as I don't stay there and know how to get myself out.

We hope you enjoyed our chat with Louisa and Lea, definitely click on over to Instagram to give them a follow. And let us know what you think in the comments!

P.S. this content was originally published in our monthly Hero Insider Newsletter where we drop skin knowledge in your inbox once a month. If you’d like to get on the list click here.