Lou Northcote
Founder of #freethepimple
Acne is something we all know. It is something that we have been brought up thinking is dirty, disgusting, ugly, the persons fault, the list of negativity goes on, but an online support community is bringing people together.
Society’s beauty standards tell us we need clear skin to be beautiful. It tells us that we need to be ‘perfect’ to succeed and our appearance is important. When in fact ‘perfect’ doesn’t exist and ‘perfect’ skin definitely doesn’t!
As a person who suffered with acne from the age of 16, I know the feeling all too well. Acne is more than the way it looks, it’s skin deep. It made my mental health hit rock bottom; I wouldn’t leave the house without makeup, I would cry every day, I wouldn’t go to university and I wouldn’t socialise.
If you would like to clear your acne, there are lots of treatments out there that can help. Don’t be afraid to reach out to a medical professional.
Breaking the stigma
Acne made me feel unworthy, ugly, like it was my fault, alone and that I wouldn’t be able to succeed because of my skin. When in fact all I needed to do was change my mind set and not compare myself to the image I was being sold.
Acne affects 95% of people aged 11-30 to some extent. So why are we so shocked when we see someone with it?
The condition has always been edited out of pictures, never been shown on tv or in magazines so we think people don’t have it. When I realised how many other people had acne, I didn’t feel so bad anymore.
Creating an online support community
I personally used social media to create a whole community of acne sufferers where we could share our skin unedited, share our feelings, favourite products, products that didn’t work, treatments we had tried etc and all of our experiences were pretty much the same.
Acne is a medical condition that happens in our bodies for so many reasons, hormones, over production of sebum, the list goes on. If you would like to clear your acne, there are lots of treatments out there that can help. Don’t be afraid to reach out to a medical professional.
If you too are struggling with acne, there is hope for clearing it but there is also hope for being confident in your own skin, even while you wait for treatment. Please know you are worthy and use social media for good, search #freethepimple and trust me you will be pleasantly surprised.
