I have been drafting a version of this blog post for a long time, but yesterday a post on Instagram sent me over the edge and showed me just how much this conversation is needed. There is an insidious belief in our society that good skin somehow represents being a good person, or good choices in life. Obviously, anyone with a brain can see that this is nonsense, but I wanted to talk about the moral halo surrounding skin for those who may be perpetuating this myth without thinking.
About 6 weeks ago I started the #UndesirablesOfInstagram campaign after discovering that Instagram/Facebook described skin conditions as ‘undesirable’ in their guidelines.
In case you didn’t know, April is Rosacea Awareness Month. I feel like I’ve been talking about rosacea forever, but I only finally got up the courage to talk openly about it on this blog in early 2013. Before then, this blog was a nail blog (hence the nail pun blog name…!): focusing on my hands meant that I never had to address my skin on the blog. I was terrified that someone would question me or make hurtful comments about my appearance, so I hid myself away.
A few weeks ago I received an email telling me that I had been chosen as one of Marie Claire’s 30 favourite influencers and would be featured in their upcoming Marie Claire Verified Power List.
What.
… Pardon.
What.
