DORA: Oh, noooooo. What's this pimple doing here?
WENDELL: Don't worry. It's just a skin hole clogged with sebum.

DORA: Say what, Wendell?
WENDELL: Yup. It's your sebaceous glands spewing sebum!

DORA: I still don't understand.
WENDELL: It's a tiny, tiny collection of cells. They lie underneath your skin at the root of the millions of nearly invisible hairs that grow on your face, your back -- just about every place except your palms and the bottoms of your feet!

DORA: Yeah, but what do these sebaceous glands do?
WENDELL: Normally, they produce modest amounts of a waxy, oily substance called sebum that seeps out of the holes or pores in your skin. But sometimes, these glands go a little crazy, oozing way too much stuff, and plug up your pores.

DORA: Gross!
WENDELL: That causes the tiny hairs that are attached to these glands to fall out and stuff like excess sebum and dead skin cells to get trapped underneath the plug, causing a pimple.

DORA: What are blackheads?
WENDELL: They're pimples too.

DORA: That's it?
WENDELL: Pretty much. Keratin, that substance that makes hair, feathers, claws, horns and nails is also in the dead skin cells. If a lot of keratin from these cells accumulates, the plug gets so big that it pushes open the entrance to the pore and the waxy, oily plug is exposed to the air.

DORA: But it looks like dirt.
WENDELL: If you see a blackhead, it's not dirt but a pore plug that has been turned dark through exposure to the air.

DORA: How about pimples that are white or swollen?
WENDELL: The white ones are called whiteheads. When the plug remains small, the gunk at the top of the pore doesn't get exposed to the air, and, therefore doesn't darken.

DORA: What about those pink, swollen looking pimples?
WENDELL: With those pimples, not only do you have trapped sebum, and dead skin cells, but you have bacteria that love to munch on those dead skin cells. You end up with a pus-filled bag under the skin. If you have a continuing problem with infection, and your skin is seriously inflamed, you have acne.

DORA: But why am I getting pimples? I never had them before?
WENDELL: Because you're beginning to go through puberty -- the time when your body starts to change into an adult's. Your body has started making chemicals called hormones that do things like make your sebaceous glands work overtime. Eventually your body will even out.

DORA: Promise?
WENDELL: Yup.

DORA: So what do I do about my pimples?
WENDELL: There are some simple things you can try. Wash your face often. Don't use stuff on your face that contains oil. Beyond that, there's little agreement as to whether eating chocolate or things like french fries has any effect. You can certainly try watching what you eat and using store-bought pimple cremes work.

DORA: Should I go to the doctor?
WENDELL: If you have serious acne, go see your doctor, because those kind of pimples can scar. There are medications that will help! Dora, just about everyone has had pimples at one time or another. Archeologists even think that they found zit cream in the tomb of a mummified Egyptian prince!

DORA: Any more tips Wendell?
WENDELL: Be patient and try not to pop those pimples! If you burst a pimple, you may spread the infection.