Feeling comfortable... in your own skin!

Just a few days ago, while flipping through a magazine, I stumbled upon an article talking about something called “Social Media Skin Dysmorphia”. Basically, we’ve become so used to seeing faces altered by TikTok and Instagram filters that we’ve forgotten what real faces look like.

In the virtual world, everything looks polished and perfect, faces included – it’s like everyone’s made of glass! This seems to have triggered a full-blown obsession among social media addicts with their appearance, sometimes to the point of rejecting their real image and chasing (even with surgery!) an unattainable standard of perfection starting with their skin.

Now, let’s be real: every now and then, we all wish we had a different face – especially when we wake up in the morning, and the mirror shows us panda eyes and a lovely pimple right on the tip of our nose! But deep down, we should be used to – and dare I say, fond of – our little imperfections. They’re what make us unique and special; sometimes they’re even reminders of the life we’ve lived. Scars, wrinkles, even the occasional breakout, they all tell our story. They show the world if we’ve cried or smiled, if we’re tired or stressed, if we’ve indulged in a bit of guilty pleasure, or if we’ve been lucky enough to treat ourselves to a sunny holiday that’s left our skin glowing inside and out.

So why hide all that behind a filter? Why have a face like everyone else’s? Unrecognisable, impersonal... plastic? It’s like if every restaurant served the exact same dish, making every customer’s taste buds conform to one bland flavour; or if designers forced us all to wear the same dress, standardising style and turning our outfit into a uniform.
Sure, being alike is comforting. It helps us relate to each other, understand each other, and share more. But it’s our differences that make relationships interesting, enriching our connections and ourselves. It’s what makes us fall in love, become friends, fight, make up, find compromises and discover new ways to be together and happy. Is it really worth giving all that up just to be more Instagrammable?

I’m keeping all my wrinkles... and when I think of you, I like to imagine you all looking different, each one unique, inimitable, precious and deserving of being loved just as you are.