I have always been known for having a tremendous amount of freckles. Throughout my teenage years, I've watched countless makeup tutorials on how to cover them up and make my face look flawless. Even when I was much younger in elementary school I remember disliking my freckles because not all of the other children had them. I had more freckles than any of my other friends combined, and sometimes I would even get made fun of for them, often times being called “freckle face.” Early on in my life, I put the thought in my brain that freckles were not attractive and that it is better to have no freckles at all.
However, one day as I was looking at the app Bustle, I came across an article titled Fake Freckles are in Right Now-Can You Tell the Real from the Applied? I was so surprised to hear about people actually wanting freckles on their face and going as far as drawing them.
I began researching the topic a little more and found from magazines like "Good Housekeeping" all the way to Pinterest boards titled “1000+ ideas about fake freckles,” the freckle craze is definitely trending, and I was really confused.
For years I was called "freckle face." I spent so much time caking foundation on my face in a failed attempt to cover my freckles, and now, suddenly, freckles are beautiful- so beautiful that models have them hand drawn on their flawless faces. I simply didn't understand why everyone thought freckles were such an attraction now.
Even after reading countless articles on Bustle and Pinterest about freckles being a new style, I still disliked my own. And when summer came, so did more freckles. I remember girls commenting on a number of freckles I had on my back. They would always tell me how cute they were and that they were jealous. Jealous? Really? I was so flattered for the compliments but genuinely confused. I still didn't understand the freckle trend.
I began examining my freckles a little more in an attempt to understand what everyone finds so cute about them. These brown uneven circles that run across my face and are splattered on my shoulders and back. How could these little things be cute to anyone?
The more I showed my freckles, the more people would tell me how adorable they were. After a while, I began to wear tank tops just to show off the freckles on my shoulders, and I thankfully learned that caking on foundation certainly wasn't doing me any favors. I have learned to be comfortable with the great number of freckles that I have, and I can even say that I find them to be cute now too. Even if the fake freckle trend dies out anytime soon, at least I can say the most important thing to me:
I am now comfortable in my freckled skin.
