Key Sentence:
- Starface co-founder and former beauty editor share her journey through the skin and must-have products for Glamor Acne Diary.
- When you have adult acne, it’s easy to feel alone, like you’re the only one with acne after 18.
However, between 12% and 22% of 26-year-olds out of 44 suffer from acne, and this number is increasing every day (on the other hand, only about 3% of older men have the condition). In our new Acne Journal series, we ask influential women with acne about their relationship to their skin and the products they rely on to make them happy. Next up: Starface co-founder Julie Shot.
Acne can be a burden, but when you work in the beauty industry, there’s added pressure to have flawless skin – or at least great-looking skin. Julie Schott, former beauty director of Elle and co-founder of acne-positive skincare brand Starface, knows it closely.
Shot said her skin was evident during high school and college, but she found that she could deal with persistent acne after starting her career as a beauty editor. “When you’re very young in your career, you just want to look trustworthy,” he told me.
Acne to me feels like [people think], “You don’t have to understand how to take care of your skin; You are doing this wrong. She remembers wearing a hat to dinner – “like, not a cute hat that matches my outfit” to hide a lousy forehead piercing.
Shot tries everything to clear his skin, both for his confidence and for journalism. “I’d try anything from all brands direct to consumer to dermatologists and try prescriptions,” she says. “And I would say that it all made the situation worse. There were too many, too many treatments.”
But it’s not all bad. During her years on the now-defunct XOJane Lifestyle website, she wrote extensively about her skin experiences and started a community. “That was before Instagram, so I shared photos on the website,” he said. “It’s great because people connect with it. There’s so much community around the experience.”
