Pore paranoia. The magnifying mirror’s cruel joke. For years, I was convinced my pores were gigantic, visible from space, and the ultimate skin imperfection. I zoomed in on selfies, scrutinized my reflection under harsh lighting, and felt a constant low-grade anxiety about the state of my pores. Then, one day, I took a selfie. A completely unfiltered, unedited, close-up selfie. Intentionally focusing on my pores.
It was terrifying. But as I looked at the photo, something surprising happened. My pores…weren’t that bad. Okay, they were visible. They’re pores, after all. But they weren’t craters. They weren’t monstrous. They were just…pores. And honestly, they were pretty normal. That selfie, the one designed to amplify my pore paranoia, actually ended it.
It was a visual reality check. A reminder that what we perceive as flaws, especially when magnified in our own minds, are often not nearly as dramatic in reality. My pore paranoia stopped being a source of anxiety and became just…a reminder to chill out about my skin. Pores are pores. They’re part of skin. They’re normal. Stop zooming in, step away from the magnifying mirror, and remember that your skin is beautiful, pores and all.