00:00Oh, your skin looks a hot mess.
00:02People think that you're dirty.
00:03Everyone's like, oh, just rub cocoa butter on it.
00:05But I don't think that that always works.
00:07It took me about three years to accept my skin.
00:10Like, you get acne, and you're a brown person or a black woman,
00:15you're going to get some hyperpigmentation in some shape
00:17or form.
00:18Hyperpigmentation is when patches of your skin
00:20become darker than the surrounding skin
00:21due to excess melanin.
00:23Hi, I'm Risa Papillon.
00:25Hi, my name is Kia Briant.
00:26I'm Channing.
00:27Hi, my name is Amber.
00:28And I have hyperpigmentation.
00:30My hyperpigmentation is on my elbows.
00:33I definitely have some from past breakouts in my jawline.
00:36And I have a scar on my leg.
00:39My hyperpigmentation is on my back and my shoulders.
00:43Face, my chest, my shoulders, and my back.
00:45I also have it on my hips.
00:47On my face, on my back, and on my butt.
00:51I had years of acne, really bad acne.
00:54It was hormonal, so it was concentrated
00:56in the lower part of my face along my jawline.
00:58Just kept coming, kept coming, kept coming,
01:01no matter what I did.
01:02I would just get hives, and they would itch,
01:05and I would scratch them.
01:06I played sports as a kid.
01:09My knees were always skinned up, always band-aids,
01:11always a scab picker.
01:13There was a time in my life where I just never
01:14left my apartment without something on my skin.
01:17I used to cover my hyperpigmentation on my face
01:20like every day, caked face, every single day.
01:23Even sleepovers, I would have makeup on to sleep.
01:26I remember calling home and crying,
01:29but I don't know, as in college, I don't know what to do,
01:31because I just couldn't leave my apartment.
01:34Because I had these really best parts all over my face.
01:36I would wear a long sleeve in the summer,
01:39long sleeve shirts, long sleeve pants.
01:43I would go to the beach fully clothed.
01:47I would tell my mom, you know, I feel insecure about my skin,
01:50and she did her best to try to help me.
01:52She would take me to the dermatologist all the time,
01:54but like I said, a lot of that stuff
01:56didn't work for my skin.
01:57I would buy loofahs, because I read that exfoliating it
02:00could, you know, help to even the skin tone out.
02:03That didn't work.
02:04I tried witch hazel, I tried apple cider vinegar,
02:08I tried coconut oil, I tried all of these things, okay?
02:12All of these things!
02:13But none of that worked for me.
02:15I tried a chemical peel, I tried acid peels,
02:20I tried basically everything,
02:22and nothing was really working for my skin,
02:24so it was either accepted or keep hiding,
02:27and I wasn't willing to keep hiding,
02:29so I basically just forced myself to start loving my skin,
02:35and it was the best decision, I mean.
02:37And then the more I thought about it,
02:39I was like, no one really cares that much,
02:40like no one is ever looking at you that hard.
02:42Over time, I started kind of looking at the hyperpigmentation
02:46on my shoulders and on my back as just kind of like battle scars.
02:50It kind of adds to the character of my being.
02:54People are so afraid to say that they don't like things about themselves.
02:58They're like, no, embrace it, be happy with who you are.
03:01And I'm all about that, but I do think that we do have the ability
03:05to change things about ourselves that we don't like.
03:08It could have been so easy for me to say,
03:09like, oh, this is like something that I have.
03:11Like, let the hair grow, let the acne come,
03:14let the acne burst, let the scars form.
03:18But I wasn't like, I wasn't okay with that,
03:20and I think that's okay too.
03:23So I would just say look in the mirror, compliment yourself,
03:27and just be around people with good energy.
03:30Don't let the doubters or just don't let the negative energy come into your space.
03:37Just be positive, don't move on.
03:39That's it.
