HOW ACNE HAS TRANSFORMED MY LIFE FOR WORSE AND FOR BETTER

By: Sarah

I think opening up about my experience about acne is kind of liberating in a way. Almost like I’m exposing my most embarrassing secrets to a group of people who I know understand the same experience. For what feels like forever now, I have been a sufferer of severe acne and it has had pretty devastating consequences on my self-confidence. Nevertheless, here are some of the ways acne has transformed my life, sometimes even allowing me to learn a little more about myself and others.

For the worse:

Ok so let’s get this one out of the way first. I think we can all agree that acne absolutely sucks. Especially when you seem to be trying every product out there with practically little to no money and seeing no benefits. I think one of the worst things about having acne is that any money I do get is spent on useless products that never seem to work. While my other friends have fun buying clothes or going out, I feel like I’m just wasting my money on cheap products that often just aggravate my skin. As a high school student, it is not exactly like I can afford to go to a professional dermatologist or buy prescription medication because it is simply too financially unrealistic as I am sure is the case for

While my other friends have fun buying clothes or going out, I feel like I’m just wasting my money on cheap products that often just aggravate my skin. As a high school student, it is not exactly like I can afford to go to a professional dermatologist or buy prescription medication because it is simply too financially unrealistic as I am sure is the case for

As a high school student, it is not exactly like I can afford to go to a professional dermatologist or buy prescription medication because it is simply too financially unrealistic as I am sure is the case for the majority of other teen sufferers. It can be so frustrating having to look in the mirror and hating what you see, wanting to hide from your friends and family because you're so ashamed of your own face.

For the better:

I know that it may seem impossible to think that acne has any way of improving your life in any way, but after dealing with it for so long and reflecting on it now, I think I may be able to find at least a couple of benefits.

Not going to lie, the first pro is definitely that I have become a master makeup artist of my own skin. While my friends are only now beginning to experiment with makeup, I’m sure that most acne sufferers can claim to be some of the best users of makeup for their age group.

Thinking about it now, acne has allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of a whole network of people. Being a teenager with acne is super hard and I don’t think anyone can truly understand the struggle of these people without actually going through it yourself.

As much as I would have loved to avoid this experience all together as I’m sure everyone would, I think I now can truly understand how emotionally damaging it can be and I just hope that other people out there realize that they are not alone and that there are so many people going through the same painful experience.

In a way, I think that is somewhat enriching because you are able to truly empathize with others during a very emotional period in people’s lives and you are able to provide support for other just as they can provide support for you because we all understand each other.