Panel 1
(A woman looking like a magazine ad, with perfect skin and teeth and hair and little sparkly bits around her face)
Text (From a faceless narrator unless otherwise noted):
When I was younger, I was told a myth of perfect skin –
that my acne would have cleared up before wrinkles could begin.
Panel 2
(A group of adults with acne)
Text: Now I’m older, and I know that line is full of shit –
The world is full of grownups living with blackheads and with zits.
Panel 3
(A person with acne on their face and a zoomed-in inset of a pimple)
Text: Acne is a skin infection, only that and nothing more;
It doesn’t come from bad or lacking habits, only clogging pores.
Panel 4
(A different group of adults with acne)
Text: Zits happen to people in all sorts of places,
They come to people of all sexes, ages, and races.
Panel 5
(A person with a large, painful-looking pimple)
Text: Acne can occur for you or me or anyone,
And dealing with breakouts is never fun.
Panel 6
(Two people frowning at a person with acne)
Text: Our culture gets angry at folks with “bad” skin,
And seems to equate breakouts with “sin.”
Panel 7
(A person with clear skin holding soap out to a person with acne)
Person with Clear Skin: “Why don’t you just wash your face?
That’ll make your acne go away.”
Panel 8
(A person with clear skin speaking to a person with acne who is holding an ice cream cone)
Person with Clear Skin: “Just keep away from sugar and candy;
Then your skin will be fine and dandy.”
Panel 9
(A person with clear skin speaking to a stressed-out person with acne)
Person with Clear Skin: “You’re just under too much stress,
Calm yourself down and give your skin a rest.”
Panel 10
(A person with clear skin talking to a person with acne)
Person with Clear Skin: “You don’t exercise quite enough –
Go for a jog and make your acne less rough.”
Panel 11
(A person with clear skin talking to a person with acne)
Person with Clear Skin: “If you’re broken out, you must be dirty –
Who has acne after they’re thirty?”
Panel 12
(A thin person with clear skin speaking to a fat person with acne)
Person with Clear Skin: “You wouldn’t have breakouts if you were thin!
It must be you’re weight that’s stressing your skin.”
Panel 13
(A man with clear skin speaking to a woman with acne)
Man with Clear Skin: “Don’t they make stuff to cover that up?
Isn’t it your duty to put on makeup?”
Panel 14
(An older adult with clear skin speaking to a younger adult with acne)
Older Adult with Clear Skin: “Couldn’t you clear up your acne by taking medicine?
Just take the pills to take care of your skin?”
Panel 15
(A person with acne covering their head and being shouted at by people with clear skin)
Text: All of these things and more are what folks with acne hear,
Grownups having breakouts know that society is clear –
Clear-Skinned Person 1: Your skin should be flawless, your pores should be small;
You can’t look like a teenager working the mall.
Clear-Skinned Person 2: You must be somehow broken if your skin is flawed,
And it you don’t try to hide that, a line is crossed.
Clear-Skinned Person 3: If you don’t bow to beauty standards, you can’t be trusted
So don’t be disappointed when we’re disgusted.
Clear-Skinned Person 4: How on Earth do you expect to ever hold a job?
Nobody will hire you if you look like a slob.
Clear-Skinned Person 5: I’d be surprised if you could manage to get a date –
No one will be seen with you with your skin is such a state.
Panel 16
(A person with acne shrugging)
Text: But all of that is some tremendous bullshit,
There’s nothing wrong with having zits.
Panel 17
(A diagram of a person with acne with their hands on their hips, smiling, with stuff bouncing off their skin)
Text: Skin keeps your insides in and the outside out,
It’s an amazing organ that sometimes breaks out.
Panel 18
(Three people with acne, wrinkles, and dimples)
Text: It produces oil to protect its thousands of pores,
Sometime these get impacted, swollen, and sore;
Cystic acne, blackheads, and pimples
Are just as natural as wrinkles and dimples,
All of those are just skin being itself
And none of them are conditions that need help.
Panel 19
(A man with acne putting on makeup and a woman with acne holding medication)
Text: If you want to cover your breakouts, do so with freedom,
And if you want to treat your acne, you can, for any reason,
Panel 20
(A person with acne shrugging while acne meds and makeup disappear from their hands in a puff of smoke)
Text: But we need to stop judging people who don’t –
Who can’t take pills or wear makeup or who just won’t.
Panel 21
(A bunch of happy people with acne)
Text: You can be happy with a broken-out face,
You can live with acne with patience and grace –
We shouldn’t have to forever chase after a cure,
Hiding our faces until we look “pure.”
The world’s full of people who have been having this fight
And it’s time we came, with our acne, out into the light.
