Confessions of a shy, sensitive schoolboy. When suffering from acne, my stepmother at the time (a ma

Confessions of a shy, sensitive schoolboy.

When suffering from acne, my stepmother at the time (a makeup artist) was more than happy to conceal my zits for me, and regardless of the daily comments on part of fellow students to the contrary, I believed her when she would reiterate that “you (I) don’t look like you are wearing makeup at all”. Seeing that my small group of friends were made up of girls, I had long been accustomed to name calling by the boys, but it was the girls that worried me when they commented on my supposed makeup. Usually it was compliments, to which when I would respond to the effect that “I do not wear makeup”, it was met with much amusement. My stepmother, as always, remedied my anxieties, “the girls are simply jealous of your complexion” she would say. As time passed I never could bring myself to admit it, that my acne must have substantially cleared, yet I unnecessarily continued with the application of my “flawless complexion”, and steadily my standards for what I considered to be a natural “makeup-free” look became ever more unrealistic and daringly “pretty”. Eventually each morning I would be applying my own makeup along side my stepmother. 

I hate to imagine how the students really saw me. How deluded I may have been!