"How Acne Gave Me Confidence"

Casey,18, from Madison, NJ, found there was a totally unexpected upside to her struggle for clear skin.

You used to be pretty until you became a pimple face.” That’s an exact text I got from a boy when I was in 7th grade. Yes, I did have acne, but up until then, I had always been self-assured. At that moment, every positive thought I had about myself vanished. I hated looking at myself in the mirror, and I was paranoid that people were talking about me behind my back. I was proven right when I came into school after I got braces and saw my guy friends make faces at each other, as if to say, “How could she have gotten any worse?”