Teen Acne: A Teenagers Perspective

Life sure can be a funny thing. When I started this "getting rid of acne" info blog, which has now taken on more of an acne community sounding board, I would have bet you dollars to donuts that my very first post would have been something about teen acne. I mean really, if I am honest with myself, kids and teenagers were and are where my passion has been all along. When I think how acne affected my teenage years and how fast the world changes today. It breaks my heart picturing what teens with acne must go through.

The heads of kids in high school have to be spinning like a top, social pressures that come at them from all angles on top of a relentless sophisticated media/advertising behemoth that pitches those manipulated images of who the cool kids are. And they can sell you anything you need to be cool too. Should you happen to be prone to acne they have just the right teen acne treatment to take you to nirvana.

But somehow life just got away from me and the acne topics that seemed appropriate at the time just got my attention while teenage acne issues got put on a back shelf. I could always justify to myself that as long as I was staying on topic I didn't need to get age specific.

But a couple of days ago my conscience got the better of me and I had made a determination that come hell or high water I was going to write something about teen acne. But when I sat down to bang it out on the keyboard, I had nothing. Well maybe a little more than nothing but it wasn't anything new. It was the same old tripe that you can find on a thousand sites about teen acne treatments and cures for teenage acne that are nothing more than jump pages to retailers. So what's a person to do?

Well it occurred to me since I am some years removed from my teen years and hanging out at high school football games and pep rallies would be too embarrassing. I would just find a teenager and let them tell me about their view of teen acne.

So what follows is a response from a 17 year old boy. He is a junior in high school and since he wishes to remain anonymous. I'll just say he is an attractive doll. The question I put to his is "tell me about teen acne", that was it, nothing more nothing less.

Here's his reply;

I'm 17 and was asked the other day what my take on teen acne was. It took some time for me to think about, but I think I have finally come up with a response to the question. I dislike it, greatly. Although I do not have severe breakouts with acne, I still have problem areas from time to time. My worst problem area is my forehead. Every now and again my forehead will break out, either due to stress from school or the things I have been eating or not eating. Even when the pimples and blemishes cease I still always seem to have a constant problem with black heads there. I hate blackheads! I have tried absolutely everything known to man to rid my face of this pest, but alas I haven’t come across a remedy for the situation. From my experience with them I found that they seem to become immune to whatever regimen I use. For a while I used a mix of a prescription ointment I had had and a Clearasil brand spot remover (I would mix the both of them in the palm of my hand). It worked for about a week until the blackheads came back in stronger force, not to mention that my forehead had become dried out and flakey. So to remedy the dry skin, I reverted to bar soap and a moisturizer, and then after that I would make sure to wipe away and excess oil in hopes to keep my pores from clogging. Alas this helped my skin. My skin was back to normal, nice and smooth, but during the course of the week my black heads stayed. So my point is this. If anyone knows of or can come up with a black head annihilating regimen please share it. The world will thank, I know I will.

Well there you have it kids, a teenage perspective on teen acne. After reading what he had to say I realized high school and kids really haven't changed that much. Oh sure, they have game boy, X box, cell phones and instant messaging. But they are really the same kids that we were. Learning who they are. I realize I don't need to go back to high school to remember teen acne. I lived it and have the acne scars to prove. I think teen acne better watch out; cause if I have anything to say about it will soon be relegated to the dust bin of history.