Hey EYD! Our post today is by Ishpree Kaur, who discusses her experiences with acne and the importance of skin throughout her life. She talks about the unhealthy standards of beauty perpetuated in modern media, and shares how these led her to experience bulimia, self consciousness, and feel insecure in her own body. We hope you enjoy - if you'd like to see more content from Ish, visit her page @loveish_x to see posts about empowerment and overcoming insecurities.
If you would like to contribute, please email us at empoweringyourdesi@gmail.com or DM us @empoweringyourdesi!
For me, acne started around the age of 17. If I’m honest, at first it didn’t really phase me because social media wasn’t as big as it is now and so I wasn’t constantly surrounded by influencers promoting ‘perfection’.
It was only until it became the first thing that everyone noticed about me that it started to really affect me.
I felt like whatever I did, people couldn’t separate me from “the girl who has acne."
I don’t think a lot of people understand the impact that acne has on a person, on their confidence and the way they view themselves. The more people picked up on the condition of my skin, even if it was just a small comment, the more I started to criticize myself. Unfortunately, I entered the toxic cycle of comparing who I was to other people and I didn’t know how to break it.
I would come across a lot of people that would make passing comments about their skin if they had one tiny spot and the first thought that came to my mind would be “Well, what do they think about me?”
I think it’s so hard, not only as a woman, but a South Asian woman, because you’re under a magnifying glass and everyone has an opinion on you. Most of the time I would be told that it was my diet or that I wasn’t washing my skin properly but no one ever really understood that acne is much deeper than that.
People don’t ever acknowledge the amount of time and money spent speaking to doctors, dermatologists, skin consultants or even how much medication, skincare and dieting I was putting my body through.
I found the first/second year of university hard because I really struggled with my food. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE food but I felt really guilty and bad about enjoying my food. A lot of people drummed it into me that food was the cause of my acne and later down the line I realized that it’s just a myth.
This led to me dealing with bulimia and I became a lot more self-conscious. Later down the line, my family got me the help I needed and although it has benefited me a lot, it’s still up to me to work on loving myself because no one can do that for me.
I decided to stop listening to people’s opinions and change the way I see and define beauty.
I was very lucky that my older sister had been through a similar situation to me, so I knew that she always had my back whenever anyone would make me feel bad about myself.
It can become very overwhelming, especially when you have so many different opinions being thrown at you and sometimes, you don’t always know who to believe. If I’m honest, I truly believe that people take advantage of your insecurities and turn it into a money-making scheme, so it’s so important to educate ourselves first!
At the end of the day, the truth is that although these people thought they were trying to help, all they were doing is contributing to me hating who I am. This is what pushed me to start @loveish_X and work to normalize acne because no one should ever be made to feel bad about who they are, especially when it's something you don’t have control over. I think it’s more so about breaking the cycle and not playing into this definition of beauty that is given to us.
If you think about it, what really is beauty, and who created the idea that you have to look and be the same to be beautiful?
I personally think it’s time we stop alienating people for their differences, and start embracing the idea that there’s beauty in everything.
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