Even if two family members struggle with the same condition, the journeys can be different. In the case of mother-daughter duo Tori Spelling, 52, and her daughter, 17-year-old Stella McDermott.
When her daughter was a toddler, Spelling, who starred on the quintessential 1990s series Beverly Hills, 90210, started to notice signs of eczema on her skin. Spelling was able to identify the skin condition, characterized by itchy, inflamed skin, because she had struggled with it herself for years, albeit to a lesser extent than her daughter.
“[Stella’s] is constant,” the star told People. “She would get it on her arms, on her hands, on her face. Then, she also has seborrheic dermatitis, so it’s on her scalp.”
Eventually, McDermott started attending school, which is when the situation went from frustrating to truly upsetting—though her stress did not stem from her skin condition itself. Instead, it came from her peers’ reaction to her eczema.
McDermott recalled getting bullied for her skin in middle school. Spelling says it got so bad that McDermott was homeschooled. “She missed almost her full sixth-grade year because she was so bullied and so traumatized over all of it that she didn’t want to go to school,” Spelling recalled to People.
Spelling, on the other hand, says she only started to struggle with eczema in her 30s, with the skin condition first appearing during a highly stressful time period in her adult life. In 2005, she was going through her first divorce from her then-husband, actor Charlie Shanian, while simultaneously creating a TV show. “I was going through a lot of highs but also a lot of lows personally and a lot of emotions,” she told People.
The actress recalled her first flare-up feeling like “bug bites,” saying, “At first, it was dry patches, then it was scales, bumps, and I was just scratching it so bad that the pain started to be outrageous, and we actually had to shut down production.” She visited the doctor and received an eczema diagnosis.
The mother-and-daughter duo is now speaking out about their individual experiences with the condition, partnering with dermatology company Arcutis to share their journeys as part of the brand’s “Free To Be Me Campaign.”
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