I decided to stop wearing foundation. It was only hiding me and I felt, like, every
time I walked out of the door I wasn’t being myself.
It almost feels like there is this little, I don’t want to say demon,
but like just a little monster egg just in your face.
But you can’t get rid of it and, so, every time you bump into it or barely
touch it or something, it feels like your face is on fire.
Since she was just 11, 17-year-old Hailey, has had cystic acne, a condition, which causes
the hair follicles to become clogged, leaving the skin with painful red bumps.
I felt overwhelmed when I first started seeing my acne spread. It started
in my cheeks and then it went to my chin and then my forehead and it, kind of, went all
over the place. It was too painful. When my acne was at its worse, I just felt I was gross
and it was red and splotchy and I just felt like such a, kind of like a garbage can, if
garbage cans had faces.
Some of the low points I have with my acne, I have had a lot of people at
school, kind of, just give me dirty looks. They would call me, like, pizza face and,
you know, those generic acne terms. I just felt disgusting. I felt, like, I wasn’t
pretty. I didn’t feel like I fit in anywhere, which is silly because most people get acne.
I felt so insecure by myself that I couldn’t leave the house without
makeup on, without foundation. Sometimes I would even not even go anywhere but still
put on makeup, just so I didn’t feel gross and that’s definitely changed now.
After years of trying to cover-up her acne, Hailey decided it was time to change
and she stopped wearing makeup to cover up her spots.
I feel like I have embraced my acne by not hiding it anymore and just, kind
of, being real with myself and real with other people
Before Hailey started feeling more confident about her acne; you could tell
she was more shut in. But you can really tell the difference now that she has accepted her
acne. She doesn’t wear foundation anymore and you can tell that she is just comfortable
with herself.
Hailey now uses her social-media to help other young people struggling with their
skin and to show that anyone can be beautiful, whether you have acne or not.
When I started posting more without any foundation, I definitely got a lot of
hate at first and I would get a lot of comments, like, telling me to clean my face as if I
wasn’t already doing that and I would get loads and loads of acne advise even though
I never asked.
It’s huge to me to see her confidence level come up and her embracing her acne and
even putting a picture on Instagram, like, who does that? So that’s to me a lot of
confidence.
I feel like I have influenced a lot of people that having insecurities in
general, by setting an example and showing that it’s not the end of the world if you
don’t have perfect skin.
I hope my story regarding acne really helps people to realise that just because
you have these imperfections, doesn’t mean you are not amazing, doesn’t mean you can’t
be successful, doesn’t mean you can’t be…glamorous. Beauty is so much more than
your face.