My name is Jodie, I am 13 years old and I was born as a collodion baby.  I don’t know what type, but I have ichthyosis.  No one else in my family has the same condition as I have.  I have small brown scales around my neck, in my armpits, on my tummy, my waist, and in my inner thigh. Every night I put a layer of cream on all of these areas. I take baths to soak my skin, and on weekends, my mum puts lots of baby oil onto my scalp, as it grows quite bad on my head. In the shower, I use special exfoliating gloves to rub off the bits of dead skin. When it comes to clothing, I have to wear cotton clothes because I’m allergic to wool and polyester.

Last September I moved up to secondary school, in my life I have not yet been bullied for my skin. When I first moved up my skin was all over my neck and easily noticeable. It shocked me when no one noticed. As from then I am really cautious of my neck. I do think that I am extremely lucky not to have been bullied yet, and I know that other people with this horrid skin condition have not been so lucky.

I think that my skin isn’t that bad, and it could of been lots worse. When I was born, I had lots of tight skin wrapped around my fingers, apparently so tight, if I’d of not been born a few weeks early, I may of lost a bit of my fingers. Thankfully I didn’t. I also have to take a shower and wash myself well after going swimming, which is quite annoying I have found! My family are really supportive. Especially my mum. My ears get badly blocked, not just with wax, but skin too. Mum helps me with them by looking into them and if their bad, putting in olive oil to loosen it. Because of my ears, I struggle sometimes to hear in school. As my last name begins with an ‘s’ I get put by the back. At one stage, my skin was really bad. I am on top of it now and hope to keep it as good as it is.