“You’re ugly.” “Do you even wash your face?” Those are just a couple of the insults Hailey Wait, an 18-year-old student and influencer, has had to endure since she began to develop acne seven years ago.

“I was ashamed of my acne because of the shame people would place on it,” Ms. Wait said. Her acne affected her self-esteem, prompting her to raid the Walgreens makeup aisle for cover-ups, even if they did little but aggravate her skin condition.

Seven months ago, she had had enough, and instead of hiding behind cheap foundation or highly edited selfies, she did the opposite: She revealed her blemishes to her 15,000 followers on Instagram for the first time.

“I realized that my appearance wasn’t the thing that made me who I am, which minimized the importance I put on the spots on my face,” Ms. Wait said. “I didn’t expect it to blow up the way I did. I was just posting selfies like every other teen.”