Though eczema isn’t the most glamorous of conditions, there is a growing body of representation of people with eczema in various social mediums, which is amazing because the more people that talk about our lives with eczema, the more information, studies, and community are built around it. As I come across more examples, I’ll update this post with the caption NEW.
TV SHOWS/MOVIES/DOCUMENTARIES/THEATER
- One of the most notable now is Peter Moffat’s HBO series, The Night Of, which features the character John Stone, who suffers from aggressive eczema on his feet. Throughout the show we see him try various techniques to manage his eczema including bleach baths, Chinese medicines, airing his feet out, slathering Crisco and wrapping his feet in plastic wrap, UV light, etc.
(photo source here)
- (NEW) There is also a theater production called ECZEMA! created by Maria Fusco that embodies eczema in a creative way through writing, plays, music (including a musical backtrack of the sounds of Fusco scratching). There’s an interesting article written about it here.
- (NEW) Briana Banos, a former performer and aerialist has created a documentary called Preventable: Protecting Our Largest Organ, to educate the medical field all about the horror of life with topical steroid withdrawal, and why topical steroids shouldn’t be so freely prescribed.
BOOKS
There are also a handful of personal storytelling books about people’s own experiences with eczema, with the authors all having very diverse backgrounds. For example:
- Daniel Boey “the Godfather of Singapore fashion” has a book called Behind Every Itch is a Back Story: The Struggles of Growing Up with Rash, that I read and loved! You can read my review of it on goodreads.
- Cara Ward’s book Curing My Incurable Eczema
And we’re also seeing a growing movement of children’s books about eczema such as:
- Camille’s Itchy Twitchy Eczema by Candis Butler
- I Have Eczema by Jen Greatsinger
- Emmy’s Eczema (Dinosaur Friends) by Jack Hughes
COMICS
These prove a lot harder to find (which is unfortunate because I love webcomics!) but here are the two I stumbled across by Ms. Yoshimi Numajiri, (found on Tommy’s Skin of Rose blog).
- Diary of Topical Steroid Withdrawal At Hannan Chuo Hospital
- Diary of Topical Steroid Withdrawal At Hannan Chuo Hospital 2
- A comic about skin by Jamie Squire (an illustrator and comic)
ECZEMA ENTREPRENEURS
You also see a lot of entrepreneurs, whether they are doing eczema coaching of some sort, or have created a specific product/ product line. A few include:
- Karen Fisher: a nutritionist, blogger, and author of the book The Eczema Detox and The Eczema Diet.
- Michelle: the creator of the cotton kimono store Sunstone Kimonos.
- Jennifer: blogger and creator of The Eczema Company.
- Abby Lai: the creator of the website Prime Physique Nutrition, and maker of the product Conquerer Balm, as well as author of a few books.
- (NEW) Ashley Lora: founder of VisionHery, a company that hosts workshops to make vision boards to empower women
(photo source here)
Naturally instagram has become an amazing platform for expression. There you can find awesome people including most of the entrepreneurs mentioned above.:
- Daniel Boey (the Godfather of Singapore fashion)
- Karen Fisher (of Eczema Life)
- Michelle (of Sunstone Kimonos)
- Jennifer (of The Eczema Company)
- Abby Lai (of Prime Physique Nutrition)
- Cara Ward
- Bronya (a makeup artist who does amazing and color eye and face makeup despite her facial eczema)
- (NEW) Briana Banos (Preventable: Protecting Our Largest Organ documentary creator)
- (NEW) Alexis Smith, a Dove DermaSeries model (read about her and Mercedes here)
- (NEW) Mercedes Matz, a Dove DermaSeries model
YOUTUBERS
Of course with youtube we have vloggers too- some that focus all on eczema and others that talk about eczema and its effects around the other aspects of their lives.
- Zainab Danjuma
- Brookie Beauty
- Josh Wright – a pianist and piano teacher that made a video talking about his experience with eczema and TSW and what he used/did to get through it. He also made a post about it here.
- Dr. Nina Ellis-Hervey – she gives advice about her general body care routines, and this particular video shows how she manages her eczema. She also includes how to make a homemade body butter.
BLOGGERS
And of course, there are tons of blogs out there made by dedicated individuals who are spreading the word about what living with eczema is like:
MODELING
More and more people are also trying to spearhead showcasing diverse bodies, especially in modeling.
- Missguided – though not eczema-specific, a new part of their #KeepOnBeingYou movement has models showing off their bodies regards of having “imperfect” skin with the #inyourownskin campaign.
- (NEW) Dove DermaSeries – creating a movement to help women “make peace with dry skin”, Dove specifically selected to have models with all sorts of skin conditions to show better representation of skin conditions and subsequently to help women feel comfortable in their skins
So if you are out there feeling like you suffer from a condition that no one gets, or that isn’t really seen in the media, don’t feel alone! There are lots of us out here each expressing ourselves and living with this condition in our own ways, just waiting for you to find us. And many of us are open to people reaching out as well. 🙂
