BEAUTY GURU AND makeup mogul Huda Kattan’s brand Huda Beauty was criticised for sharing an article shaming a fellow YouTuber’s acne scars.
An article entitled ‘The Only Way To Get Rid Of Acne Scars According To The Experts’ was shared on the brand’s social media page, with the post captioned:
The only thing worse than a breakout is the little scars they leave behind.”
The article featured images of Em Ford (@mypaleskinblog), a filmmaker, beauty guru and skin positivity activist.
In 2015, the British YouTube released a video called “You Look Disgusting”, which shows Ford surrounded by the nearly 100,000 negative comments people have written about her in an effort to humanize the person behind the screen and end the stigma around acne and acne scars. Up to now, the video has garnered over 28 million views.
Can’t see the video? Click here.
Taking to her Instagram story, Ford wrote:
Dear @HudaBeauty, I wanted to say thank you for using my #skinpositivity images to tell the world that my face full of scars is worse than active breakouts. And for reinforcing that narrative that anything less than ‘flawless’ is something we should feel ashamed of, or want to fix and ‘get rid of.’
Headlines like that are the reason I receive thousands of emails on a daily and weekly basis from women all over the world. Some of whom are made to feel so ashamed of their skin, it affects every aspect of their lives. And couldn’t even dream of enjoying themselves on holiday without applying a full coverage foundation.”
She finished by saying: “Do you want to be part of the problem? Or part of the solution?” The Facebook post was quickly removed, and Kattan herself took to her Instagram stories to take responsibility for the mistake, apologize to Ford and the people the post had hurt.
Ford concluded by asking her supporters to “spread some positivity”, not only on Kattan’s page but others’ too.
You can use words to lift someone up… or tear someone down. You have a choice. What’s it going to be?”
