College blues
Life is never fair all the time. But, as Billy Ocean once sang, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Younger people find acne particularly difficult to deal with because it is often used to label them as different — or with more cruelty, diseased and socially untouchable. In this case, we tracked down Maureen who is 20 next month. Her situation is slightly different from the usual.
Sitting in the back booth in a diner, we were both enjoying a coffee and Danish. “I guess puberty hit me quite young,” she said between bites. “I was around 12 years old. When it happened I began to get a little acne. Nothing serious. Just an annoyance really. I figured I wasn’t washing enough so I would faithfully clean my skin and the acne would fade away. Then I would get casual and the pimples would slowly creep back. This was the pattern until I turned 17.” The waitress mooched over with some more coffee. It was interesting to watch how she tried to act cool and not make a big thing of looking at Maureen’s face as she refilled our cups. When she had gone, Maureen nodded and confirmed this was a standard reaction. People rarely stared openly. Just looked elsewhere when they were around her. I wondered whether she ever used any of the heavy duty foundation powders.
She laughed. “Most of them make me look like one of the living dead. People actually stare more.” She munched some more on her Danish. “I used to wear makeup when I was younger. Except the acne grew steadily worse which was frustrating. My friends had their acne when they were younger and it didn’t matter so much. Mine was getting worse over time.” She paused. “I stopped dating. Boys can be so unkind.” Which she said as a throwaway line suggesting she would like to throw most young men in the dumpster. She was understandably bitter.
“This last year has seen my life get messed up. My face, neck and shoulders have a rash all the time. I’ve tried all the usual skin products but most of them just irritated my skin and made the pimples blister. I’ve given up any makeup on my face and just live with it.”
She waved the waitress over for another refill of coffee. “I’m in college and keep a low profile. I’m hoping it will all clear up before I start looking for a job.” But I could tell she was not optimistic. There were dermatologists in her life and they were not giving her good news but, as is always appropriate in these cases, she was putting a brave face on it.