#FreeThePimple: Model launches campaign to encourage women to share photos of their acne

'I hope it will empower others to embrace the skin they’re in'

(Instagram: @lounorthcote

In recent years there has been encouraging progress surrounding body positivity but it seems that there is one area that many still consider taboo: skin.

Despite a growing number of A-listers and influencers like Em Ford, aka My Pale Skin, sharing their skin conditions, it’s an unfortunate reality that many of us feel the need to cover up blemishes.

However, one model is on a mission to change that and break down the stigma surrounding issues like adult acne.

Enter: #FreeThePimple. The latest Instagram movement created by Louisa Northcote – a fashion buying student and Britain’s Next Top Model finalist who knows first hand the shame attached to having bad skin.

Having decided to embrace the skin she’s in, Northcote wanted to encourage others to do the same and so created an online community for anyone enduring the physical and emotional affects of acne.

A movement that aims to defy normative beauty standards, Northcote hopes that #FreeThePimple will empower more people to embrace their skin.

“Body positivity is a powerful movement which has led to industry-wide embrace of models of all different body types,” Northcote told i-D.

“It has seen an embrace of people with stretch marks, an embrace of female nipples, an embrace of seeing women with their periods, and now it’s time to embrace your skin, which is why I have created #freethepimple — a movement that I hope will empower others to embrace the skin they’re in.”

The model’s skin-positive community is quickly growing with the hashtag being featured on more than 400 posts across the globe already.

“Feeling good this summer, learning to consciously affirm myself with positive thoughts,” one person captioned their bare-faced selfie.

Another wrote: “I've struggled with acne for about 3 years, but in the past two months I've finally been able to embrace how I look without covering it up and in the past month I've felt confident enough to go out in public with absolutely no makeup on.

“It's been the most liberating feeling to finally feel okay in my skin, no matter how it looks #freethepimple.”

Northcote has also modelled for a new project by London-based photographer Sophie Harris-Taylor titled Epidermis.

The project is a photo series that features a range of women with a variety of skin conditions which, despite being shot in the style of a beauty editorial, remain completely unretouched.