For as long as I can remember, strangers have been telling me how beautiful my freckles are or how they wish they had freckles like me. Even as a little kid, I never believed that people really thought these little spots on my face were cute. I have always noticed that I stand out compared to everyone else’s bare and smooth faces, and it made me jealous.

The amount of times I’ve looked up home remedies on how to get rid of freckles or how much makeup I have put on to try to cover them is endless. Even more recently, with the henna trend, in which people give themselves faux freckles, I find myself wondering why anyone would want to purposely have them. This idea of people wanting freckles always baffled me, until I finally started thinking of them as a blessing instead of a curse.

Standing out is always something I have been too afraid of, but with people always commenting on my biggest and most prominent insecurity, I started evaluating why I don’t like my freckles. To me, they always seemed like something little kids had that made them cute. Growing up and still having them made me feel alone because there was nobody else with them.

I remember the day my entire thought process changed, and I began to realize that my freckles really are as beautiful as everyone kept telling me. I was on Instagram looking at makeup artists when I saw Mari Maria. She was the first makeup artist and influencer in general that I had ever seen who has a face like mine. People with freckles are not portrayed in the media as much, so it was refreshing to see a beautiful woman with a massive following who I could relate to.

Before even checking the comments, I knew they would be filled with people telling her not to cover her face with makeup and to let her natural beauty shine. People did comment on those things, but she never listened to them. She just kept doing what she loved while still embracing her natural beauty.

After scrolling through her feed for a while, I saw she had tons of videos with natural or no makeup at all, showing that she was comfortable in her own skin. Maria was very eye-opening to me as she was the first grown woman I have ever seen with freckles and the confidence to show them off.

She made me realize that freckles are nothing to be ashamed of, that they are in my genes and make me special. They are a beautiful feature and I am happy to stand out from the crowd and embrace them now. Just because freckles are not the standard of beauty, doesn’t mean they are not beautiful. Rather than being offended when people put on fake freckles, I am flattered to see that they find beauty in what I was once insecure about.