Yeah, so we made, cos not many people actually came to our sixth form from other schools. And in my like friendship group there was only I think two people from other schools that we made friends with. And at that time my acne was kind of in the process of getting better, so I didn’t really mind. And then there was my friend with the, the acne that I said about earlier. So we were both, I guess people are just really accept-, more accepting now than they, than they would have used to. Like they, you, people wouldn’t even mention it like if you spoke to them and you had a face like full of acne. They just, they just like accept you for who you are. Which I think is nice.

Yeah, I guess, I suppose even before I had acne, even I thought it was fully caused by what people ate or what people put on their skin or not washing enough. And I think that’s probably the preconception that a lot of younger children have about acne whereas actually it’s, you know, a condition that you can eat really well and you can wash your skin really well but you will still get it. So that’s quite difficult because I was always worried that people wouldn’t understand the causes. I think it would be good, I always thought it would be good if like during sort of PSHE classes and something, it was an issue talked about more, because they talk about a lot of other things that teenagers go through. But I think that’s quite an important one that they don’t really say much about, so.

What do you think would be helpful for a PSHE teacher to cover in relation to acne?

I suppose like the causes of it, sort of the, maybe the sort of impact that it has sort of socially on people and cos people before they have acne or if they don’t have acne they can say quite mean things and not mean to. Yeah, I remember actually, I was on holiday somewhere and someone mistook it for chicken pox and it was only a very tiny child. But that made me quite self-conscious.

Could you say a bit more about what you think maybe schools could do around acne for their pupils?

Yeah. I think it’s always quite hard when talking about stuff in schools because in terms of assemblies and things like that, is a lot of people don’t listen, and sort of zoning including me I admit sometimes sort of zone out, I don’t really pay attention. But I thinkand also with doing like workshops and stuff like that, taking out, time out of lessons especially in this sort of period is really, really difficult. But I think that for something like acne and something that can be so affect somebody’s life so much is it’s very important that you do maybe take some time out. Well that’s probably, probably at the beginning of the year have a workshop with people coming in and talking about acne and stuff like that, cos even now I know of a lot of people who have pretty bad acne that could sort it out themselves, and are too embarrassed or afraid to actually do it, and I thinkand it does affect their life quite massively. And even then I think a workshop, like an hour-long workshop, or maybe even in assembly cos it would reach some people; or like a newsletter or something like that, or promoting online sort of support would definitely, definitely, really, really help people.

Yeah like the worst experience I’d say, in sixth form it was getting quite bad. Obviously, like in sixth form and school in general really like you’re such a sort of, you was conscious about how you looking, like your image, like people sort of, sort of just like just talking about – you, you, you might think people are talking about your skin or something like that. Like, oh, yeah it’s, and like I say, like people looking at you like looking at your cheeks or whatever like, you know, they’re, you know, they’re looking at how bad your skin is.

And making it like an opinion from that. But yeah, One, there was one day I got out of bed, looked in the mirror and it was like, I mean, I went, I went to like college at the worst of days, but this day was particularly bad and I just thought, No, I’m going back to bed, and I put some cream on, went back to bed. I just couldn’t like deal with, with just going in that day.

I suppose that was like the worst case, but at, in terms of at uni it never got back to that sort of level of severity. I mean, there were bad days and, and you’d try to just cope with it as best you can.

I remember all through school every single parents’ evening without fail it would be, Harriet should contribute more in lessons. She should put her hand up more often. And I think there probably was a link, but at the same time I think, I don’t think it was the most important thing in terms of that. It was, cos sort of my friends were all in the same boat, we were all quite quiet, always get told you need to speak up more. So I think acne was just sort of an extra part of that. And I think it’s, a lot of, a lot of it was just like being a bit uncomfortable in yourself. And sort of like you’re getting all like gangly and lumpy in weird places. And you just, the last thing you want to do is be in a classroom full of people and just have them all suddenly turn to look at you while you answer a question. I mean, yeah, acne was a contributing part I think but it wasn’t, it wasn’t the be-all and end-all of it.

I think when I had it when I was younger, it didn’t really affect me that much cos like I didn’t have any exams or anything to study for. But when I started going on the Accutane (isotretinoin), so that was September, like cos I’d just started sixth form. And during like the lead-up to my GCSEs as well, that was when it was quite bad. And it used to stress me out a lot, like all the exams like plus me having acne as well and I was doing all the treatments and things. And it was quite a, like a build-up of things kind of made it, made it worse. And especially when I went on the Accutane, cos then I got the side effects. And obviously sixth form, cos I started A-levels. So it was all a big like change. And that was all quite stressful as well. So I think the acne didn’t help with that either.

Are there any sort of particular places that you’d feel more conscious of your skin than others?

I guess in school environment, a college environment I feel like you’d be more conscious because I think I dunno, I always felt like that’s the sort of place which could be more sort of quite, people try to look good or quite yeah I think that’s the main place and then also sort of social gatherings.

Yeh. And does that sort of extend to at university as well do you feel that’s a similar setting or?

I feel it’s different. I think university is very different than the sixth form college I went to cos that was more sort of cliquey and very friendship group based, whereas here I feel like everyone just gets on with everyone and I think it’s a very different set-up. So, I feel like I wouldn’t be as self-conscious here.

So I think I just learned to just go without it, and it was almost like a kind of, a stubborn thing in me, that I was like I’m just refusing to wear make-up’, because I was. Yeah. I just, I kind of was almost like daring people to have a look at my face, and… And I’ve still tried to keep that where I’ve tried not to wear too much make-up and to be kind of comfortable with the way that I do look. And I think at uni it was hard because I think the first term I would wear, mostly wear make-up if I was like leaving my room because, just a little bit of like foundation just to kinda cover the, so you couldn’t really tell there was scar tissue there. And I think it was quite a scary moment the first time I was like ‘I’m going to go to the canteen and have breakfast like without make-up on. Because people can sort of tell that it’s a bit discoloured and… But now I’m much more relaxed. I think it took a while, because like- because it’s new people at uni, you don’t know anyone before, and you want people to think that your skin’s better than it is. And then eventually you get, when you get comfortable with people, you’re like oh, I don’t really mind if they, they know. So I’m not really a big, a big one for wearing lots of make-up.