Jennette McCurdy Says She Still Struggles with Acne at 31: ‘I Feel Dirty…It Makes Me Sad’

Jennette McCurdy has revealed she has struggled with acne for half her life, saying the skin condition “makes me so insecure”.

“I’m 31 years old and still fighting — capital-S fighting — with acne,” the iCarly alum and author The New York Times bestselling memoir I’m glad my mom is dead shared in the latest episode of her podcast, Hard Feelings with Jennette McCurdy.

She added: “It makes me so insecure. My God, people, this is really taking a toll on my confidence. If I have a good skin day, I feel a lot better about myself, and those are few and far between. And then most of the time when I’m really struggling, I just feel kind of miserable.”

McCurdy said she had “smooth, flawless skin” until about age 15, but attributed her acne to the “thick, caked-on makeup” she used on the set of her Nickelodeon shows iCarly and Sam & Cat.

“They would just pack it up and I was like, ‘Okay, that’s the result of just wearing makeup 12 hours a day, plus bright lights, and it’s just seeping into my pores,'” McCurdy said. “And then the TV shows stopped, and I still had acne.”

Jennette McCurdy 2022.

Taylor Hill/WireImage

She said she’s tried countless dermatologist medications — she even tried the often-controversial Accutane for a while — but at age 31, it’s still tough.

“My acne makes me feel dirty. I’m sad that I feel that way about myself, but I’m not really sure how not to.”

McCurdy also detailed how she dealt with her acne while in public.

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“Maybe you look at this being like, ‘Jennette, you look good.’ First of all, you can’t tell from a photo on Instagram. Second, people I know well will say, ‘What are you talking about?’ Because I talked about my insecurity with several friends,” she explained.

“I know how to find a good shade of foundation and the right application to make my skin look as smooth as possible and not super textured.”

Jennette McCurdy.

Jennette McCurdy/Instagram

McCurdy admitted she’s hesitant to post photos of her skin online, “but I’m too insecure to do it,” she admitted. “It’s interesting to me because I can access vulnerability so easily in so many ways, but with my face, it’s hard.”

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The actress further pointed out that self-acceptance is her biggest obstacle.

“The only thing I haven’t tried, I guess, is just accepting it and owning it,” she explained. “And maybe that’s the only thing I haven’t tried because it’s the hardest thing to try.”

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“You can insert another medicine capsule, you can put another cream on your face, dab another gel…but this one is the hardest. You just accept it.”

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Source: HIS Education