Almost every girl I know shares this experience: when I was around 12, I started to face problems with my skin. I started getting interested in skin care, but I didn't understand what routine worked for me. I would try the most random products thinking it would make a difference but it never did. I had to come to the difficult realization that what worked for someone else was not going to work for me.

For the past seven years it has been a process of trial and error to understand how my skin works. Skincare products often have long ingredient lists, sometimes with obscure ingredients, and always with hard-to-pronounce chemicals. If you are not a chemist or a dermatologist, it can be extremely difficult to figure out what you’re putting on your face, and what kind of effect it will have and why. You are forced to listen to empty marketing slogans, and to put your trust in your brand of choice.

This has always been a problem for the industry; not every customer has the same problems, or responds well to the same solution. When you face a medical issue, a doctor with over a decade of experience is required to properly diagnose and treat you. But when it comes to skincare, most people can’t afford going to a dermatologist to get rid of their blackheads.

I, along with the rest of Gen Z, have a secret weapon: TikTok. The new, short-form social media platforms have tons of informative content about different types of skin and different products that could work for different people. Having a platform with people’s personal testimonies or even experienced doctors giving advice from what they have seen and experienced throughout their careers is so important for the skincare industry, and needs to be taken advantage of.

As I begin the next chapter of my life, I plan on studying business, communications, and dermatology so I can put together the best toolkit to create a skincare brand for the TikTok era. My brand will use the internet to focus on the specific problems my customers face; this will involve using social media to get direct feedback on what products work and for whom they work. My brand will also be based in real science, and I plan on pursuing dermatology after college to build a deeper scientific foundation in skincare medicine.

Sometimes, the biggest problems we face have the simplest solutions. I want to take a small piece of each person’s perspective and create honest skincare products that actually work for people. On this website, I weigh in on different problems of skincare in the TikTok era and share my perspective as an aspiring business owner.