I’m so fuckin’ sick and tired of the Photoshop 
Show me somethin’ natural like afro on Richard Pryor
Show me somethin’ natural like ass with some stretchmarks

Kendrick Lamar

Though it’s typically dismissed, rap music at its core is built on values of social justice, respect, self-worth and creative expression.  This explains why in this tumultuous time youth culture is heavily invested in rap culture and the hip hop lifestyle.

For example, the Kendrick Lamar quote from ‘Humble’, off of his Pulitzer Prize winning album Damn, inspired artist Peter DeVito to create the image below. The image went viral, and everyone from Vice to Teen Vogue covered the artist and his positive messaging.

After the attention, 20-year-old photographer Peter DeVito felt bolstered to take more unretouched portraits of people with acne, accompanied by empowering slogans like “acne is normal” and “love yourself” stamped or painted across each subject’s face. The images feature different types of people and beauty in all forms.

The blog quickly became a therapeutic tool, posts garner thousands of likes and hundreds of comments. People often share their own personal experiences and insecurities with beauty.

Blogs like Peter DeVito’s signal we may need more community blogs like this.

Do you know of any empowering community blogs? Let us know in the comment section below.