I've had acne for most of my life. I've been put down for having acne for years and it really hurt my self esteem. All through elementary, middle, and high school I was constantly teased. And to make it even worse, I have this fuzz over the top of my lip that gets darker every year. Despite having long hair (waist length) in elementary there were people who thought I was a boy. I even had a substitute teacher that called me a "sir" during class discussion. Her excuse for calling me a boy was "some boys have long pretty hair too." My confidence was gone and so was my self esteem. In middle school a classmate said "her face looks like those connect the dot puzzles that we did in preschool." Once again I was hurt. I was never told that I was pretty until 9th grade by someone who said they had a crush on me. By the time I graduated I was told I'm "pretty" by a total of 5 people. I would look in the mirror and wonder what did they see. I'm 18 years old and I went and had makeup done for the first time ever 2 months ago and the person told me "actually you don't have bad skin at all. Honesty it's pretty clear." Once she finished doing my makeup and I looked in the mirror, I was shocked! I felt beautiful for the first time since in almost a decade!!!!!! I could finally see what the others seen. I felt like if I'm pretty with makeup on then I must be pretty without it even with my blemishes and acne. Ever since then, I've been confident with or without make up!

The first picture is of me right after having the make up applied and the second is without makeup.