‘This time last year I would cry probably three times a day. I did not want to leave my house, it’s also painful like your face hurts,’ said TikToker and influencer Alix Earle.
The 22-year-old from Monmouth County, New Jersey, has a combined following of 8.5 million on TikTok and Instagram after opening up about her struggle with acne in early 2022.
And now, she’s sharing more about her experience in a new TikTok series, All Things Acne.
She said in the first video: ‘It was a year ago today that I started to get a following when I was talking about my acne. Today I just want to talk about the fact that it’s normal.
‘My self esteem was like negative 1000. I was so down bad, I never thought I would recover from this.
‘What you see on social media, it’s all filters, it’s all edited out, it’s all fake. And I feel like all my friends that I’ve been surrounded with have very clear skin. I would always compare my skin to theirs.
i hope this helps someone struggling with their skin ?? so excited to talk more about this! #allthingsacne
‘I show them pictures and they’re like we don’t even remember your skin looking like that because the only person that notices it that much is you.
‘Today, just chill. Know that it’s normal. Stop picking at your skin, stop looking in the mirror, stop taking photos of it, just relax. You are beautiful, your skin does not define who you are.’
In previous videos Alix said: ‘It took so long for me to recognise that this was a normal thing happening to me and that I didn’t need to try and hide it from every single person.’
Alix first started breaking out in the spring of 2022, so she decided to go to her class at the University of Miami without makeup on to let her acne be.
Patience is a virtue ? #pov #patience #patienceisavirtue #accutane
The boy sat next to Alix in the class commented on her acne. Alix said: ‘He was trying to be sweet, he said “oh I have this stuff that’s really good for acne” and starts talking.
‘I literally blacked out because I was so upset at the fact this kid’s looking at me and looking at my skin and I went home and cried for hours.
‘Realistically he went through the same thing and was trying to help me. Everyone knows it’s a normal human thing and it goes away.’
Alix said what helped her was pretending she didn’t have acne and not thinking of it as her ‘defining factor,’ so she would go through her days and think: ‘Wow no one is saying anything to me, no one is probably realising it as much as I am’.
Alix, who is rumoured to be dating American Football player Braxton Berrios, has taken two rounds of Accutane – a very strong acne drug which can have severe side effects such as depression and back pain.
Alix shared that taking Accutane made her lips crack because they were so dry and she gets a bloody nose.
She also said that during her first round of Accutane she didn’t struggle with her mood, but her second round of Accutane has given her ‘little spurts of getting really sad’.
She said in a video: ‘I just want to cry and I’m not a big crier, so I don’t know what’s going on with that’.
She added she could also go longer without washing her hair because Accutane stops oil production.
All skin is beautiful #accutane
Alix claimed that she had been ‘so depressed’ in summer 2022 because of her acne and said: ‘I had never been so insecure in my life’.
Now, Alix’s skin is clear from acne, but she’s continuing to share her journey to help others.
She added: ‘The more we start normalising acne and having imperfections in your skin, the less insecure people are going to feel about it. Pores, bumpy skin, texture, scars, acne – all of that is normal.’
Alix’s followers quickly took to the comment section under her most recent video to praise her for her honesty.
One wrote: ‘You were genuinely the first influencer that made me feel comfortable with my acne.’
Another said: ‘From someone who also cries 3x a day…this is what I needed to hear today. Thank you for being real.’
Someone agreed that acne is normal as Alix said, writing: ‘I got acne in my mid 20s out of nowhere and I felt so hideous but you’re right it’s normal – beautiful with or without.’
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