How much do you love your skin? If you’re like most people, the answer is, “not very much”. That’s understandable. After all, we’re bombarded every day with images and videos of young, beautiful people with flawless complexions and incredibly smooth skin. The problem is that those images are false. From fashion ads to makeup product placements, manufacturers and advertisers pull out all the stops to 1) make us feel that our skin is unhealthy and ugly, and 2) make it seem like their products can give us blemish-free skin. The truth is that those images and videos are the results of physical makeup products that hide the so-called flaws we all have, as well as photo and video editing software. In short, the story that we’re being sold is unattainable because it is impossible. So, what’s the solution? Learn to love the skin you have! It’s simpler than you might think. What we need to realize as a society is that healthy skin is beautiful skin, but that does not mean “perfect”. We must release the stigma surrounding conditions like acne (which everyone deals with at some point) while valuing what makes our bodies unique, whether that’s a beauty mark, freckles, a pair of cute dimples, or the beginnings of laugh lines that show you value joy and laughter. Of course, we also need to learn how to support healthy skin. That means not covering it up with products designed to hide it, or that dry it to the point that it becomes inflamed and red.