Most of us had to suffer through some acne when we were teenagers but 25-year-old Madeline Roberts continues to deal with her acne problem.
At 14, her acne became severely cystic. She stopped participating in beauty pageants because she became insecure and felt she wasn’t “beautiful” anymore.
Meet Madeline in the video below.
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Video credit: Rumble
Madeline, from Utah, said: “When I first got it, I was trying everything.”
“Then it became apparent that it was going to be pretty hard to get rid of as different treatments weren’t really working.”
“At my lowest point, I would look in the mirror and just feel like I was too far gone, I felt like I would never have the skin that I want.”
Madeline couldn’t imagine anyone seeing past her skin so she became “afraid to date.”
She said: “I desperately wanted love and I thought, I will never get that, as long as I look like this. But the fact that she’s married now belied that assumption.
She met her husband Trevor through their friends at church and “instantly clicked.”
Trevor said: “We can be ourselves around each other. And when I felt that I was like, I think this could be the one.”
But when they first started dating, Madeline couldn’t help but feel anxious that he would leave her.
Madeline had just finished her treatment with Accutane, a skin medication, so she didn’t have acne when they first met.
But a few months later, the cystic acne came back with a vengeance.
“I was afraid that he would think I had catfished him,” Madeline said. “I was really scared; I didn’t want him to know that I was insecure. I thought he was in this oblivious dreamland, and I was afraid that he would wake up one day and be like, ‘Her skin is ugly.’ I felt very unworthy of Trevor’s love and I felt like he was crazy for finding me attractive.”
But Madeline’s fears were unfounded.
Trevor said: “It wasn’t until after a few months where she kind of admitted to me that she was concerned that her acne was something that was going to hinder our relationship or cause me to break up with her. It kind of floored me because that wasn’t even on my radar.”
Trevor’s acceptance made Madeline realize that it was her own insecurities that were making things difficult in their relationship.
She explained: “I was the one saying that I’m not worthy of love. I gained true confidence because he showed me that he doesn’t love me because I have great skin, he loves me because of my personality and my heart.”
Two years ago, Madeline began posting no-makeup selfies online to inspire others to accept themselves beyond the ‘perfect’ filtered images often seen on social media.
“I was tired of hiding my skin”, Madeline said. “Instagram has really helped normalize acne for me, I’ve found a community there. Most of the reaction I get are people saying, ‘Wow, I would never have the confidence to post a picture like that.’”
But she’s finding it difficult to translate this online confidence into real life.
“I used to not leave the house without lots of makeup, it was almost like an addiction.”
In the video, Madeline shows up at her church and leads worship and singing in front of the congregation for the very first time without makeup.
It was an experience she found “nerve-wracking.”
“I typically cover my skin with makeup because I feel like that’s just what you’re supposed to do when you have acne,” she said.
But for Trevor, he recognized how big a step this was for his wife and was there to support her.
He said: “I’m very proud of Maddie, to see her courage to go out there and do it and she felt she looked comfortable.”
As she came off the stage, Madeline described the experience as “freeing.”
She said: “I think it’s a long time coming, building up the courage do to something like this.
“True confidence comes from within, and not from what your face looks like.”
Replaced!