“We are all vulnerable to skin insecurities, but we are most impressionable in childhood,” says Jones. “We internalise messages about our bodies from a very young age, and the messages we receive can go on to form the narrative for how we see the world – and ourselves and our bodies within it – into adulthood. In response to this, we can develop a very binary view of the world, struggling to recognise that our value doesn’t stem from how our skin appears.”

Children tend to think in a very black-and-white way, Jones says. “For example: ‘If my body isn’t right, then I am not right,’ which can lead to mental health conditions such as depression, OCD, anxiety, eating disorders and body dysmorphia if we’re not offered the intervention we need to reframe this thought process. If something isn’t going right in our lives – and we lack the psychological maturity to reason and contextualise our problems – the easiest thing to do is blame ourselves because we’re the consistent factor we can identify.”

What’s important to recognise, in addition to the truth that our skin insecurities are rooted in unrealistic standards, racism or ableism, and that our skin is in no way a measure of our worth, is that in almost all instances, our skin insecurities have been taught to us by some external party – whether a person or social media platform. The bad news is that it’s near impossible to eliminate all risks of developing skin insecurity in today’s society. The good news is that we can unlearn the lessons we’ve been taught about our skin.

The truth about skin insecurities: where do we get them from and how can we unlearn them?