On September 25, Em Ford began uploading pictures of herself on her social media… without makeup on.
Her message:
"You are beautiful - no matter how flawed you feel, no matter how upset you may be about the way you look or how hard you find it to make friends, or be confident. Believe in yourself, and never let anyone tell you you're not beautiful - not even yourself"
To her surprise, more than 100,000 people have commented on her posts. Since then she has composed a video titled “My Pale Skin” #youlookdisgusting to recap some of the disturbing remarks left on her pictures.
Examples of these include:
“I can’t even look at her”
“Seriously… has she ever washed her face?”
“You look disgusting.”
Next the video shows Ford putting on her makeup. She brushes, powders and conceals. The end result is a complete transformation; any onlooker who had not seen the “before” shot would be convinced that Ford had flawless skin.
The comments on her pictures now seem to change… They read:
“Absolutely stunning.”
“You look perfect.”
Suria begins to smile.
But then the comments turn:
“This is amazing… but so gross.”
“You wear too much makeup”
“This is false advertising.”
“This should be illegal.”
“Imagine waking up to her in the morning.”
I cannot summarize and do the video justice so please go and take a look for yourself. It’s only three minutes long and has over 18 million views as of now.
But it did make me reflect on my own circumstances. At the age of 13, I started to get acne. That is normal. It’s still terrible. But, it’s adolescence, and I was prepared for that. I was not prepared to have the same problem at the age of 20 years old. Yet, I engage in this battle every single day. And I know so many others do as well.
No one wants to talk about it. No one wants to admit that they wake up in the morning looking like they got stung by bees in the middle of the night. But that’s just how it is.
And I started to think about why I wear makeup. I wear it everywhere I go. I do not leave the house without it on and even get paranoid thinking about someone catching me bare faced in the comfort of my home. This sounds terrible I know. It sounds like I’m not confident or maybe even that I don’t love myself.
This isn’t the case. On the contrary… I feel strong, and beautiful, and like the perfect creation of God that I know I am.
I don’t feel like my acne.
I look in the mirror, and that just doesn’t look like the person that I am.
I wear make-up because it is an expression of my confidence.
I want other people to be able to see the confidence that I carry around in my heart.
And I don’t think that’s false advertising, or illegal, or making myself less.
Please don’t comment on this article with things like, “I think you’re beautiful with or without,” “Bless your heart,” or other various compliment fillers.
It’s not my intent to seek pity or fetch for compliments. But instead to provide a conversation for others who feel alone in their battle with acne, or any other physical appearance that is publicly deemed repulsive.
I wear make-up so I can look in the mirror and see… me.
Because I just don’t feel like my acne.
