A moment in my past that changed me is when I started getting acne at a young age. This affected my self-esteem because it made me insecure, especially around my friends because they all had clear skin. I started developing acne in the 5th grade and as time went on it became worse. Over the years my doctor would prescribe me medicine for it but it never worked. I would go to the pharmacy all the time and buy several different products but those never worked either. Finally, in the 8th grade I went to a dermatologist and would have to get injections in my face in order to reduce the swelling. Even though that would work within 24 hours, it wasn’t a permanent treatment so my dermatologist prescribed me my first bottle of pills. Throughout highschool I took 3 different types of pills in order to reduce my acne and I would also use topical creams that were prescribed to me. These medications would always make my skin worse before it ever got better but after about 3-6 months of using everything, my acne would flare up again. At one point during my senior year of high school my acne was so bad it would hurt to lay my face on my pillow, wash my face and it would even hurt when I would cry. After taking so many medications and none of them working I gave up on the idea of having clear skin because the situation felt hopeless. Being that my acne remained persistent for years I had to learn to become confident because I didn’t want to continue being sad and insecure. Even though this took a while, once I became confident I felt like I was a more positive person. It felt good not having to constantly worry what people think of my skin or wanting to put makeup on to cover anything up. In the beginning of my freshman year of college my acne started flaring again but it didn’t affect my self-esteem very much because I knew that it didn’t define me. After months of not using any treatments I decided to try curology because I had seen multiple ads about it. I began using curology in November of 2019 and noticed a difference in my skin right away. The inflammation went down almost immediately and as time went on the redness decreased also. I’ve been using curology for a little over a year now and I have clear skin and no longer breakout anymore. My skin is the clearest and smoothest it has ever been and my confidence has increased because of it.