My name is Katie, and I’m a 30-year-old blogger living with psoriasis. I blog atKatie Rose Loves, where I share my thoughts about all things beauty and my methods of coping with psoriasis.
I’ve always been quite private when it comes to my skin, and I kept it hidden until about three years ago when I started my blog. My goal is to help others with psoriasis by raising awareness and sharing my advice.
I’ve had psoriasis for most of my life: 25 years, in fact. I was 5 years old when I told my mother that I had chicken pox. But my parents knew that I didn’t have chicken pox — psoriasis has been in my family for three generations on both of my parents’ sides. My doctor confirmed their suspicions.
Over the next 25 years, I let having a skin disorder affect my confidence, my daily living, and my happiness. And unfortunately, over the years, I have missed out on some great opportunities because of my psoriasis.
Here are three examples of times in which I experienced FOMO (fear of missing out) due to my psoriasis, and what my outlook is like now.
After I left high school, I decided I wanted to be a beauty therapist. I had a love for makeup and beauty treatments, so I enrolled in a beauty therapy course as soon as school finished.
Three weeks into the course, my skin flared up badly. We had to team up to do beauty treatments on each other, but my classmates hated getting paired with me. This wasn’t because of my psoriasis, but because the teacher wouldn’t allow me to have any beauty treatments.
我们也必须穿一点白色制服。我觉得很尴尬，因为你可以看到我所有的牛皮癣补丁。我开始穿着肤色的紧身衣，隐藏我的腿和一个羊毛衫来隐藏我的肘部，所以我觉得更舒服。但是当我到达上课时，我的老师告诉我，紧身裤不允许，我也应该脱掉我的开襟羊毛衫，因为这是针对统一的政策。我拒绝了，被告知，如果我没有遵守规则，我会被驱逐出境。
我受到了我的老师收到的完全无知和缺乏同理心的伤害。之后，我决定的美容疗法不适合我。
几年后，我的男朋友将我坐在一起度假。而不是像其他人一样穿着夏天的衣服和比基尼，我从头到脚趾覆盖自己。
I didn’t want anyone to see my skin. Although I knew that a bit of sun would be good for my skin, I still couldn’t bring myself to show it.
我应该是放松和享受自己,but instead, I was anxious about other people seeing my psoriasis.
不久前，我接近了一个建模机构。出于数百种型号，代理机构选择了我面对服装品牌。
I was so happy and excited to be chosen, but a few days later, my skin flared up badly. I was petrified that I would turn up to the photoshoot and they would see my skin and turn me away. So I didn’t go to avoid rejection.
When I think about all the times I have missed out because of my skin, I get so annoyed with myself. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time to do things differently. Instead of being ashamed of my skin, I would tell people all about psoriasis and educate those who didn’t know what it was. I would wear what I wanted, and I wouldn’t be anxious about people’s opinions of me. The support of my family and friends would be all that mattered.
在过去几年中，我的信心更多。看来老年人，我的关心越少。我意识到美丽比皮肤深刻，生命太短暂，无法担心别人的想法。
Instead, I’m focusing on becoming the best version of myself possible — starting with the inside. Psoriasis controlled my life for too long, and I refuse to miss out again or let it ruin my future. I’m not going to let psoriasis define who I am, and I won’t let my skin ruin my life any longer.
Be brave, be confident, be happy, and don’t let it ruin yours either!
Katie Rose is a 30-year-old beauty, skin care, craft, and psoriasis blogger atKatie Rose Loves. She loves all things beauty-related and has a passion for natural beauty products that are gentle on the skin. She has lived with psoriasis for 25 years and hopes to raise awareness and influence others to feel good about themselves regardless of their skin.