Tia Mowry Is Changing the Narrative Around Sensitive Skin: ‘Vulnerability Is a Superpower’

usmagazine.com:

Tia Mowry loves the skin she’s in! But it hasn’t always been easy. In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, the Aveeno ambassador opened up about her journey to getting diagnosed with eczema — and how she hopes speaking out will encourage more normalized conversations about skin sensitivities.“Skin sensitivities are often seen as a weakness or an imperfection, the 44-year-old actress says. “And it’s something that we don’t necessarily talk about.”It was for that reason — a lack of visibility of what eczema looks like on Black skin — that she and her mom, Darlene Mowry, battled with the inflammatory skin condition for years before receiving a diagnosis.The Sister, Sister alum recalls getting “circle patches” on her arms when she was young.

At the time, her mom told her, ‘Oh, that’s just from the sun,’ or ‘those are sunspots.’ But in reality, it was eczema; the doctor she and her mom went to wasn’t familiar with what eczema looked like on Black skin.“Finally, as I got older, I remember going into [another] doctor’s office and my hands were literally peeling.

I showed them to her and was like, ‘What is going on?’ She was like, ‘Oh, honey, that’s eczema.’ And this was a black doctor — it took a black doctor to properly diagnose what was going on.”Mowry’s personal experience is a perfect fit for Aveeno’s newest campaign, which centers around the hashtag #ProudlySensitiveSkin.

She and the brand hope to encourage people to share their sensitive skin stories to promote an open dialogue — and help others zero in on the root cause of their skin woes.For her, a whole slew of culprits contributes to her skin’s inflammatory response. “When I’m stressed, I’ll have some sort of flare up, or when I’m going into a hot room into a cold