by Jennifer McKinley, Founder, COR Silver Skincare
COR is sixteen years old!
For a skincare company, that's quite an achievement, we don't mind saying — we're proud to be here. Many brands don't make it past year two! And we're going strong, thank you.
For a human, though, our teen years can certainly have some tough moments, to go along with all the great, fun parts.
- Remember embarrassment turning your cheeks bright red — even over things that, if you're looking back as an adult, probably weren't that big a deal?
- Ever have to walk into a new school, where you didn't know anybody? Gotten left off of an invitation? Tripped and "yard saled" whatever your were carrying?
- Ever felt like strangers were staring at you? Or that a single small breakout on your nose was a giant crater, probably visible from space?
I suppose I was lucky to grow up in a time when the “invisible audience” truly was just all in my mind — although that still didn’t make it easier to not be hard on myself. TikTok, SnapChat and Instagram can make it worse, obviously. Your phone and its camera can be fun, but it can also stink to be visible all the time. That “invisible audience” is actually real for teens now.
These are all normal feelings that everyone has to deal with. Confidence is the key to a lot of things, and as a teen it can take time to build up that confidence. Good news is that there's lots of good information about becoming more confident — just remembering to "cut yourself some slack" is not a bad starting place, but there's more you can do!
- Give this article a read for practicals
- Make sure to include people in your social streams who help you feel good about being yourself — Remi Bader, Spencer Barbosa, Lindsay Fleming, Daniel Duku, and Justin Puder are just a few who talk real talk about self acceptance, body confidence, self care, and more. And sometimes make you laugh, which is good medicine too.
- This older article has some more hard-core science on how your brain is sometimes kind of working against you (which, great news, will get better pretty quickly as you move through teen years)
At the same time, looking our best always helps us feel a bit better and a bit more confident. So, that's why we're always excited hearing from teens (and their parents) who use COR and report that it helps clear up their face.
It can be pretty great being a teen. Congratulations to us and to you! And the best is yet to come.
About the author: Jen McKinley spent her teen years getting too much sun on New Zealand's beaches. She started COR in 2008 to start repairing her damaged and breakout-prone skin.
