It’s never a good idea to eat too much junk food. But eating poorly doesn’t cause acne. Acne is an outbreak of blackheads or whiteheads. Blackheads and whiteheads are kinds of pimples. They form when the body’s natural oils get trapped inside the skin’s pores (small openings where hair grows through the skin). Pores connect to oil glands.

Oil glands lie deep beneath the skin’s surface. They produce an oil called sebum. Sebum travels through the pores and ends up on the skin. There it forms a waterproof barrier for the body. It keeps the skin nice and smooth. As an added bonus, it also keeps dirt off pores.

But if the sebum gets trapped inside the pores, bacteria can build up. Then the pores can get clogged. That’s when a whitehead or blackhead appears. Whiteheads occur when a pore becomes completely clogged. Then it closes up. The sebum and bacteria collect in the pore and form a small white bump. Blackheads develop when a pore clogs but doesn’t close up. The sebum in the pore turns black when it mixes with the outside air. This leaves a tiny black spot on the pore.

So why do some people get blackheads and whiteheads while others don’t?

Unfortunately, this has to do with a kind of science you can’t do anything about. It’s called genetics. It’s all about the traits passed down from parents to kids. This means if your birth parents had pimples as teens, chances are that you will too.

Did You Know? :

Scientists say that eight out of ten preteens and teens get acne at some point.