Lucy Hale Recalled Feeling 'Mortified' By Her Acne During 'Pretty Little Liars'

Lucy Hale on a blue background
Lucy Hale on a blue background
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Dealing with acne can tank your confidence, as Lucy Hale can attest. In a new Glamour interview, the actress opened about experiencing breakouts while filming Pretty Little Liars, an experience she found humiliating at the time.

"There were tears. There were days when I didn't want to be in front of a camera," said Hale in the interview. "I remember vividly one day we were filming Pretty Little Liars — and the show's called Pretty Little Liars, so they wanted us to look a certain way — we had to specially light my skin to reflect in a different way so you wouldn't see my acne. I remember being just so embarrassed and mortified."

After trying a slew of methods to try to keep her acne under control, Hale has found success with working with an esthetician, changing her diet, tailoring her skin-care routine to her combination skin, and giving herself grace when the occasional breakout still inevitably pops up, reports Glamour.

"I'm 32 now, I definitely have just in general let go of expectations," Hale told the publication. "I think I'll always care to some extent, but I think I have way more compassion for myself. And if I have a breakout instead of being like, 'Oh, God, what am I doing wrong?' I'll say, 'Oh, wow, I must be stressed,' or 'I must be not having enough water.' I try to find a solution as opposed blaming myself. I've definitely lightened up a lot more."

Hale previously opened up about her experience with acne on the set of Pretty Little Liars in an interview with People, revealing that the heavy makeup she had to wear on set to cover her acne only made her skin issues worse. "My skin doesn't like a lot of makeup, but the layering of foundation, powder, foundation, powder…it just made it really angry," she said at the time.

Hale's recounting of her experience with acne has no doubt hit home with fans who have beat themselves up over their own skin issues. Adult acne is extremely common, even if social media filters and strategically-lit TV shows might make that easy to forget.