Poppy: How Skin Positivity Changed My Life

My name is Poppy Williams and I have been suffering with acne for around five years. I spent four of those years crying and trying to figure out how to get rid of it. I went on things like Lymecycline and  changed my skin care so many times.

I used to sit and reapply make up at least three times before I went out because I got really emotional over the fact that I didn't have clear skin and other people did.

I thought I was less beautiful, I thought I was less worthy and I thought people saw me differently. It was literally the most hellish time of my life.

And it wasn’t until I discovered skin positivity that I realised how sad it was making me.

The change happened to me that when my sister sent me an Instagram account of someone who advocated for skin positivity.

I've never heard of it before and the content these people were creating was incredible. I sat there crying because I was like goodness me, there are people in this world who go through what I’ve been through and love themselves? I could be like that.

It took a long time to get there but I did it. I know it sounds ridiculous but I literally sat in the mirror and told myself you look beautiful, you can get through this. Sometimes I had tears coming down my face but as long as I was saying those words my brain eventually started to believe it.

I started to change my language around my skin. You don't have bad skin, you have a severe breakout. Your scars are not ugly, they are just there. Your scars are not dark and obtrusive, they are just hyperpigmented.

I had to have conversations with my mum because she had grown up in such a negative acne mindset – I had to talk to her about the way she spoke about my skin. I told her 'I've changed my language, you should change yours, let's stop having these negative conversations about my skin.' It took some time and we even had to stop speaking about it completely for a long time. But now we're in quite a positive place when it comes to my skin. We work together.

The day I realised I didn't hate the girl in the mirror with spots and scars on her face was literally the biggest weight off my shoulders.

Skin positivity helped me get there and I'm so grateful for this message so thank you so much for the gorgeous skin positivity community at 47 Skin and for helping me feel loved and helping me feel accepted.