A woman with severe acne has taken a stand against trolls who branded her “a man” and demanded her photo be published with a trigger warning. Shauna Murdie has suffered from the skin condition since she was 15.
The 22-year-old agriculture student, from Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, has been abused over her gender, sexuality and skin. She was called “disgusting”, “dirty” and that she shouldn’t be allowed to post her face online without warning.
But Shauna, whose acne is down to high levels of testosterone, has fought back by telling her own story on social media. She has amassed more than 9000 followers and had more than one million views on her reels since she started sharing her story in May 2020.
She said: “I first started getting acne between the ages of 15 and 16, but only on my chest and back, to begin with and it was very mild, so it never bothered me.
“Around December 2020, I began to suffer my most severe breakouts which covered my entire face, back, neck, shoulders and chest. It was causing me great deals of pain and irritation but most of all very negatively impacted my self-esteem.
“I found myself crying regularly, hating the way my face looked.”
Shauna said school was a nightmare. She explained: “I had someone comment on my posts saying I shouldn’t be allowed to post my face online and it should have a warning and I should be putting my page private.
“Someone told me that my face was disgusting and that I should be ashamed of myself and that I deserve to have my skin the way it is.”
Through her own posts, Shauna has learned to love herself again and is urging others to do the same. She said: “We can all support one another. You don’t need to change a single thing about yourself.
“You don’t have to look like the models in magazines to be beautiful and your beauty doesn’t have to be defined by the opinions of others.”
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