My blogger friend Terra of Stylish White Female started a great idea: to show off the bare naked faces of women to show that we ALL are beautiful. (follow along on twitter too: #barenaked)

She requested her female readers reveal their bare-skinned faces — no makeup, no fancy filters, no hiding behind hair — and I submitted my picture. Along with a horrible list of all the things wrong with my bare face. What’s weird is that I’m not self conscious about my body at all — but my face? Zero confidence. I see enlarged pores and saggy, sullen skin and under eye circles and red eye lids and sun damage (and sadly, now skin cancer scars)… and age. Even when I showed off my skin cancer scars and surgery pictures, I was hiding behind a mess of bruising and bandages.

The truth is: I DO NOT LIKE myself — my face — without makeup. Even less so as I get older.

Terra started an amazing project that hopefully prompts more women like me to love the skin we’re in. I’m trying… and her thoughtful response back to my list of negative comments honestly made me cry. I don’t know why I hate on my face so much — or why I’m struggling emotionally so much with aging — but her praise and encouragement made me reconsider how I see myself.

I’ve got some work to do, but I’m forever grateful for her doing such a project.