I had acne from the moment I hit puberty at 12 years old. My mum was on Accutane as a teen and has dealt with acne her entire life, so she was especially sympathetic. She took me to a dermatologist right away who gave me topical creams that I started using nightly. At this time, my acne was very surface level — lots of small little pimples, mostly on my forehead. I continued to struggle with acne all through my teens and into my 20s, but it wasn’t always constant or the same type. I found that my acne usually responded to new medication fairly quickly but would always get somewhat “desensitised” to the product and eventually come back, leading me to search for something new. My dermatologist eventually put me on birth control at 14 which seemed to really help for a good 10 years.