02/07/2026
For a long time, I thought editing was just filters.
Smoothing your skin.
Changing the lighting.
Making your face look a little slimmer.
Removing the things you don’t like.
But the more I think about it, the more I realise editing can start long before we ever press “Edit.”
It’s choosing your “good side.”
I do that.
Not because I’m trying to pretend I look different, but because my left eye has a congenital ptosis, so it appears smaller. I’ve also had Bell’s palsy three times before the age of 20 and it left me feeling self-conscious about that side of my face.
So I naturally turn the other way.
I don’t use filters.
Sometimes I wear make-up, sometimes I don’t.
But I do choose the angle that feels safest.
Is that editing too?
Maybe it is.
And if it is, I don’t think most of us wake up one morning and decide to hide parts of ourselves. It happens gradually, over years.
Sometimes because of things people say.
Growing up, I remember hearing comments like:
“Your skin looks like elephant skin.”
“How will you ever get married with skin like that?”
“She’s the ugliest girl in the school.”
I had eczema.
Those words don’t disappear just because your skin changes.
They become part of the conversation you have with yourself.
Even now, there are so many posts I’ve started writing and never shared because a little voice asks, “Why would anyone want to hear from you? What have you got to say?”
You may have noticed I posted much more consistently earlier this year.
I even worked with a marketing company because I thought maybe I just needed to learn how to “show up” better.
But somewhere along the way, I realised I was creating a version of me rather than simply being me.
There was nothing wrong with the content.
It just didn’t feel like my real voice.
For me, skin has never just been skin.
It’s confidence.
It’s identity.
It’s the stories we carry about ourselves.
Maybe that’s why I wanted to share this.
Not because I’ve completely stopped editing myself - I haven’t.
But because I’m trying to notice the ways I do it.
And maybe, little by little, choose authenticity a little more often.
I’d love to know…
What does “editing yourself” mean to you? ♥️