When I first hit puberty, I had really bad acne. Like, I'm normally bad because of genetics, and I guess I have really thick skin, so like, it's not like regular acne. It kind of ended up being like a very IV type thing situation, and it was just really hard to take care of, and so now I'm scarred.
I started having acne when I was about 10 years old. It started pretty young and it was much more severe when I was younger and when I was a teenager. Now it's more off and on but um I've definitely aged out of the teenager phase and continue to still have acne on and off so um that's an interesting scenario and I've heard from the many dermatologists I've gone to that for some people the acne carries on into late adulthood. So that's bad news for me but it's definitely something that I think we need to be more aware of because it's not just a teenage phase sometimes.
So the worst experience I've ever had with acne, as far as the largest kind of pimple or acne that I've had, happened when I put some hand sanitizer gel on some acne on my shoulder. And this was probably when I was about 18 years old or so. And apparently that's a very bad idea. My acne, just that one spot, grew to be the size of like, oh, I wanna say it was probably the size of a nickel in width and in depth. Like it was probably like half of a nickel or I don't know, it was huge, filled with pus and it was gross and disgusting. So I would recommend not using hand sanitizer to try to get off of acne, cause it could react bad.
So acne runs in my family and my older sister got it really bad in her early teenage years and I had it on and off. It wasn't horrible but we were lucky enough where we knew it was coming for me and so we started me on face washes like just a face wash and then a face lotion morning and night when I was pretty young and I think that was really good to be proactive about that. It saved me from a lot more breakouts than I think I would have had. So I think just kind of seeing what you're genetically predispositioned for and just starting treatment whenever you can so that way it prevents as much acne as possible in the future.
I had acne for the majority of my high school career, which is really unfortunate because all my photos look very terrible, but I tried lots and lots of different types of medications, like Accutane, and I tried just a just a pill, and then I tried another one that was just just on the face, and they were all really great, but none of them actually really got rid of it, and I was it was really annoying, but then eventually I got new treatment which affected the hormones, and like it's really, it's way, it's way better, and it's just interesting to see the difference in like my self-worth and like how much it affected me, and I'm really happy about the amount of makeup that I don't have to wear anymore, so kind of interesting, yeah.
I had more acne in high school towards my junior and senior year during the pandemic. And I think it was really just a result of like the uncertainty of the pandemic and lots of stress. I moved and that was kind of challenging. So, and I also just wasn't really taking that good care of myself. But it's something I've definitely been working on as I've been in college. And I've really seen that as I've tried to take care of myself, manage my stress a little bit more. And also, I think washing my face has helped a lot. I wasn't very good at that. I've seen it get better. And obviously I still have good days and not as good days. And I've also found a treatment that works for me, Rodan and Fields lotion. Once you find a good treatment, stick to it.
I went to multiple dermatologists, multiple doctors, and multiple estheticians. And it wasn't until last year, so it was from 7th grade all the way to when I was probably 21, 22, is when I truly figured out how to like clear my skin. And I still have acne scars, but it is nothing compared to what it was before. An experience I had was that the esthetician facials, acne facials really helped. And also just being on the same page with your dermatologist, and if you feel like they're just trying to push medication on you, it's totally okay to go and try out different dermatologists as well.
So I still struggle with acne, just not nearly as bad, but in high school, or not even, no, public school, from like grade six, I guess, on, I had terrible, terrible, terrible acne. Like I went on a liver deteriorating kind of dangerous medicine to try to get rid of it, as well as tried to go on a tanning bed to try to reduce them. And it wasn't even just like me picking them, it was just, it was really, really bad. And I was embarrassed about my back, I was embarrassed about my arms, I would wear big black thick sweaters and jeans, even in the summer when it's boiling hot, because I didn't want anybody to see my body. I was very, very body shamed. Now, it's not so bad, I do get some acne here and there, especially if I, you know, get upset and start picking a spot. But it's not nearly as bad. But I do still have it.
I will probably make multiple videos about this topic because I have dealt with acne for years and years and years. But a personal experience I have is I was in dance for a really long time and you have to wear pretty heavy makeup. But one dance competition I was at, I was just having to pound and pound and pound makeup on because my skin was peeling. I had whiteheads, blackheads everywhere and I just felt so disheartened because you're supposed to feel your best when you're dancing and all of this stuff. But I just was so self-conscious about my face and I was like, people are looking at me, looking at my skin, when in reality, really no one was. But I think that was kind of just a hard personal experience to have when you wanted to just feel confident and be dancing.