Dr. Pimple Popper Knows What it’s Like to Struggle With a Chronic Skin Condition

Dr. Sandra Lee, better known as Dr. Pimple Popper, has been sharing her work as a board-certified dermatologist on YouTube since 2010. But it was the 2018 release of her series, Dr. Pimple Popper, that garnered her millions of fans who tune in every week to the show (and every day to her Instagram) to watch her take on everything from a patient covered in pilar cysts to extracting a 55-year-old blackhead (both are a must-watch for anyone with a strong stomach!).

Not only does Dr. Lee deliver transformative results, but she does it with a level of care and humanity that makes her patients, some of whom won’t leave their houses because of the nature of their skin, feel seen and heard.

She credits her father, who is also a dermatologist, for her compassion.

“When I was in med school, my dad said, 'You can be the smartest dermatologist in the world, at the top of your class at the best school, and you could have terrible bedside manner and your patients are going to think you're a bad doctor.’”

She adds, “A lot of dermatology is how it affects you mentally. That's just as important. You have to give people a feeling of control over their own skin.”

It also helps that Dr. Lee knows what it’s like to live with a chronic skin condition, having struggled with atopic dermatitis (AD), the most common form of eczema affecting 21 million people in the U.S. aged 12 and older, since she was a child.

“I remember once as I was older, [my mother] said, "I almost sent you back to Malaysia to have my family take care of you because your eczema was so bad,' because it makes you cry," she recalls. "You're just uncomfortable."

As a result of her experience, “I have a special connection with patients who have eczema,” she says. “I mean that's one of the first things I tell them, I say, 'Look, I have the same thing. I grew up with this,' and I feel like that makes us connect with each other.”

“In general, people with eczema, they're going to hide it," she continues. "They don't talk about, 'Oh, look at my arm, look at how I have this rash,' or something. You don't really talk about it unless you're actually, you have to have it shown and you're embarrassed about it — or more so, self-conscious."

That’s why she partnered with Incyte, the makers of Opzelura, a new prescription non steroidal topical cream, on Moments of Clarity, a digital campaign to help connect people suffering from the skin condition.

“It’s important for people that have eczema to realize they’re not alone,” she says of sharing her own experience, including a “really bad flare” in medical school. “This gives me the opportunity to hopefully connect with more people because they see me or they recognize me, that they will maybe go to [the site] to learn more about this and realize that there are treatment options for them. And that they don't necessarily have to just deal with this condition, especially if they've never seen a dermatologist.”

Dr. Lee says her regimen now includes being “religious about moisturizer” to try to keep her eczema under control. “If I take a shower, I have to put moisturizer on right after to seal in that moisture. Otherwise, I know it's game over the rest of the day. I'm going to feel dry and then the itch will start and then that's when that gets out of control.”

And whether you have eczema or not, her best skincare tip is to keep it simple despite the complicated routines you see all over social media.

“I don't subscribe to 20 things that you apply to your face,” she says. “If you enjoy that and you’re not stuck in the bathroom for three hours and it doesn't affect your daily life and it makes you feel good, go for it. But don't feel like that has to be you to have beautiful skin.”

This article was written independently by PEOPLE’s editorial team and meets our editorial standards. Opzelura is a paid advertising partner with PEOPLE.

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